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Digimon Spiral Source (T)

And with a (admitedly from February, but technical difficulties stopped me from posting it here and are still stopping me from updating this on FF) return to fanfiction, here is my neew fanfiction. It is rated T just for any freedom I may want. Also, things weren't quite set in how I wanted them until most of the way through chapter six, but I liked the older ones so I haven't rewritten them. I am also way ahead in writing, so hopefully I won't fall into the same boredom I've had with my past stories. And without further ado, I present:

Digimon Spiral Source

Helix 1: Arrival of Destiny.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing is going my way. Why can’t I have something good just once.”

“Don’t worry my friend. I have power and am willing to share it with you for one little price.”

“What? Who are you? Why would you share your power with me?”

“Because you strike me as a good person to befriend. Who I am is not important now, you will find out soon enough if you accept my offer.”

"Really? What is this cost you mentioned?”

“Simple. Give me your digicore when you die.”

“But then I couldn’t be reborn. What would be the point of power if I only get one life to use it in?”

“Because I can revive your core even stronger than before. I only have a select group of allies and I have revived all of them at one time or another. Please, I would ever like another ally on my team.”

“Do you mean it? But how would I know? I mean, you could be tricking me to steal my digicore.”

“I am far stronger than you, if I wanted your digicore I’d already have it. I am also quite hurt you’d accuse me of trickery and lying when I am offering you a chance to join a team that shall rule the world.”

“Rule the world? You didn’t mention that before, what do you mean?”

“Have you heard of the Demon Lords?”

“Of course, they were a group of strong fallen angels. They waged war on the Sovereign for centuries before being destroyed. I heard a rumor that the Sovereign brought them back to life and granted them pardon them of all crimes if they and there dark armies joined the Sovereign.”

“Well that was no rumor, it is true. And they have truly become reformed and good. It sickens me and I wish to restore the name of demons that they have destroyed.”

“But what they’re doing sounds good, why wouldn’t you like that?”

“Because my people are wicked and deserve to destroy the Sovereign and take over, not serve as the Sovereign’s playthings. I am building a new group of Demon Lords, with myself as the leader and want you to be a member. You would make number five, the new lord of Lust. Or maybe Greed if you’d like, I still have not finished planning, but with one more digimon it would go quicker.”

“But, this would be utter blasphemy, what if the Sovereign found out? They would kill us all and condemn us to the darkest pits of the Dark Zone.”

“How would they find out? I wouldn’t tell, would you?”

“O-of course not, but are you sure we could be victorious?”

“No, but we have a good chance. And now I have told you so much so it is time to make your choice. Shall you join me and gain ultimate power, or turn down the offer?”

“My life has been no good lately; I have nothing to live for so I don’t see why not. I’m in.”

“Good.” A flash of light filled the black area, surrounding a small figure and growing bigger before going out again, leaving the place in total darkness. “Now come with me, New Demon Lord of Greed. Yes, you fit greed better than lust, so you can be that.”

“Th-thank you sir. Thank you so much! I feel so powerful!”

“Well now you can see I meant no deceit. We must go now, I should introduce you to the other three New Demon Lords and then I shall scout out two last members.”

“Yes, I'm coming sir.”

()()()

“Lucemon, what is the meaning of this?” an angry voice yelled inquisitively. An armored angel pushed into the dark room, destroying the door that led into it.

“What is the meaning of what, Seraphimon?” a tall young man floated in the middle of the room in a meditation position.

“This!” the angel, Seraphimon, said holding out his hand. An orb appeared in it, showing an image of ground with the words ‘The Demon Lords have returned’ printed in red.

“Just some fool trying to stir up trouble, like all the other times,” Lucemon said, shrugging. “I see no reason you are acting so rashly.”

“Because this wasn’t just any fool.” Seraphimon moved his hand down and the orb grew slightly. “The ground this is written on isn’t a small plot like the others or even a wall, it is a large field. And that isn’t red paint; it is the blood of an entire village that was near the field. Every last digimon in it was slaughtered and drained of their blood. Even more, they were preserved by a seal. Specifically, a Seal of Pride, something only you can create.”

Lucemon’s eyes widened. “What madness is this? Someone has gained my power to create a Seal of Pride and slaughtered an entire village. I am not the only one that can create a Seal of Pride, but the only other one I know that can is Sovereign Lord Zhuqiaomon and he would never do this. Whoever committed this crime needs to be captured immediately.”

“I already have men on the case, but I have come here to make sure it wasn’t you. I wish I could just believe you as it would speed things up, but you were an enemy of the Sovereigns at one point. Sovereign Lord Azulongmon has wished for me to do a psych-check on you.”

“Do you really not trust me? Fine, if it will prove my innocence, check me.” Lucemon’s body relaxed and Seraphimon walked up to him, placing a hand on his forehead. The two digimon glowed with a rainbow aura for a few seconds before relaxing. The aura faded as they separated, Seraphimon floating backwards and putting his hand down. “There, you checked me. I am clean of any involvement. Now what I want to know is who wants to impersonate me, and how did they get powerful enough to impersonate me?”

“I guess we can learn that when we find them. But for now, I must report to Sovereign Lord Azulongmon. Can you please see if any of the other Demon Lords know anything?”

“Sure, if it will help. But for now, I must finish my meditation, so please go.” Seraphimon flew out of the room and Lucemon returned to his meditations, contemplating who could be the culprit of this horrific crime.

()()()

Seraphimon sat on a bed in a large white room slouched over onto an arm thinking. A female angel walked into the room and sat next to him. “What is it, Seraphimon? You seem worried about something.”

“Oh, it’s nothing Ophanimon. Just something related to my job in the council, nothing for you to worry about,” he replied in a depressed voice.

“You seem to forget, anything that affects you affects me too. So tell me, what is the problem?” Ophanimon pushed.

“Well, you know that small village we went to on our first date all those years ago?”

“Of course, we had both just reached Champion and you finally go the courage to ask me out, how could I forget? We had to fly for almost an hour to get there and we went to that little restaurant ran by that old Weregarurumon. But why does this matter?”

“Someone destroyed it and killed everyone there.” Ophanimon’s helmeted face turned to shock when Seraphimon said this. “They placed a Seal of Pride on them to stop there bodies from digitizing and used there blood to write a giant message to the gods. It said, ‘The Demon Lords have returned.’”

“O-oh my god! I can’t believe this! Lucemon and those demons turned against us! I knew they would do this, I said that reviving them was a bad idea. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!”

“Wow, Ophanimon, I never knew you thought so lowly of us,” Lucemon said, appearing in the doorway of the room. “I didn’t turn, nor did any of the other Demon Lords. This is a whole new group of digimon trying to take our power, and it appears to be working because one of them was able to create a Seal of Pride, which is very difficult.”

“Oh, I am so sorry,” Ophanimon apologized. “I shouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions. I should have known you wouldn’t abandon the council and the Sovereigns after they gave you back your lives.”

“No, no, we probably would have when we first joined so I don’t blame you. However, it has been a few years now and this is like a second home to us that we’d never turn against, even if we can’t go out much or let the public know we’re still alive because of the Sovereign’s orders. Seraphimon, I questioned the others like you asked. Barbamon told me that he heard a few rumors of a powerful virus type going throughout the land, killing many digimon and recruiting a few into his forces. None of the others knew anything and Barbamon had no idea on anything past the rumors he heard which were all rather vague.”

“Well that means that we are without a lead. I’m not sure if the Sovereign will like this, but we should go report this to them. I’ll be back.” Seraphimon got up and walked to the door, standing next to Lucemon. “Let’s get going.”

()()()

“This is terrible.” Seraphimon and Lucemon stood in a large room in front of four large, imposing digimon. The one that spoke up was a large brown turtle-like digimon with two heads, a large tree growing on his back, and twelve tan orbs surrounded the tree; he was Ebonwumon, Sovereign Lord of Water.

“I say that we shouldn’t let the Demon Lords off the hook too quickly,” said a second digimon. He was a large, four eyed phoenix with eight pairs of wings-a large pair on his shoulders, another pair on his back, a third small pair on his chest, and a last clawed pair protruding downwards from his sides- and a large tail-like body. Six crimson orbs circled around his neck and six around his tail. This was Zhuqiaomon, Sovereign Lord of Flames. “Even the best psyche-checks can have flaws and Lucemon could be hiding something. Any of them could be hiding something important, for all we know they could all be behind this and just staying with us to get suspicion off their backs.”

“Calm down Zhuqiaomon,” said the third sovereign-a long blue dragon made of electricity wearing an electric blue face mask that showed off his four eyes. Like his brothers, Azulongmon Sovereign Lord of Lightning also had twelve orbs, three blue ones around each of his claws. A chain wrapped around his body and he had a long white beard that reached down almost to the ground. “Psyche-checks may not be perfect, but something big like that would be hard to hide and any psyche-cloaks on it would be rather obvious.”

“I say, why not just go out and kill all strong Virus-types?” asked the fourth and last sovereign, Baihumon Sovereign Lord of Metal and Light. He was a large white tiger donned with a spiky face mask, front leg guards, and spiked collars on his back legs and tail. He was encircled by twelve golden orbs in a ring. “If whoever was doing this is a strong Virus then this would guarantee we destroy them.”

“We can’t do that because it would kill many innocents and could cause a revolution by angered digimon,” Ebonwumon replied. “Also, may I remind you that Zhuqiaomon is a Virus-type and very strong and killing him wouldn’t stop this, so that theory is very bad?”

“Sovereign Lords, if I may interject,” Seraphimon spoke up. “My men are on the case. My best holy warriors are tracking down whatever caused this. I doubt even all of them are strong enough to damage whatever virus could do this much damage, but if we know what we are dealing with then we can fight it better.”

“Also, if I can analyze this Seal of Pride that was laid on the village I can break it and find out more about them,” Lucemon added.

“Very well, we must talk amongst ourselves privately anyways,” Ebonwumon replied. “I’m sorry for the suddenness of this, but I must ask the two of you to go to the village that was destroyed and check it out. See what you can find and report it back to us, now get going.”

“Yes sir.” Seraphimon and Lucemon both saluted before taking off. After they both were gone Ebonwumon turned towards his two brothers.

“I think we all know what needs to be done,” he said simply.

“Yes,” Azulongmon and Zhuqiaomon replied. “We both know what needs to be done.”

“Um, I forget,” Baihumon replied, eliciting a collective sigh from his older brothers.”What needs to be done?”

“We must release the digivices to find the digidestined, those who contain the souls of darkness and light. We will then call them here, give them partners, and let destiny take its course.”

“Yes,” Azulongmon replied to Baihumon’s question. “You get the partner of light, Zhuqiaomon the partner of darkness, Ebonwumon the digivice of darkness, and I retrieve the digivice of darkness. This should take a few days and we don’t have time to waste, so everyone get going and be hasty about it.”

“Okay brother.” Baihumon turned into a mass of metal bearings that shout out of the top of the building.

“I best be going too, my goal is the farthest away.” Zhuqiaomon turned into a flaming blast that followed out.

“This better work or we may be close to death,” Azulongmon mused before blasting out as a bolt of lightning.

“Oh my brothers and there fancy teleportation. I think I’ll just walk there.” Ebonwumon slowly turned around and walked out of a large entrance at the back of the room made for the Sovereigns.

()()()

Four days have passed since the Sovereign left and they had gathered back together. Zhuqiaomon and Baihumon both guarded smaller digimon, one that looked like a purple head with long thin ears and the other being a small green blob with three horns. The elder two Sovereign held two small devices.

“It appears we are ready,” Ebonwumon said. “Digigate open.” A tear in the universe appeared like a green portal. “Digivice release.” The small device he held turned into a black ball of energy that shot into the portal.

“Digivice release,” Azulongmon repeated, the device he was holding turning into a white ball of energy before shooting through the portal. “Digigate close.” The tear repaired itself and the Sovereign sat there for a minute in silence.

“So now I have to babysit this little Yaamon until the digivices return?” Zhuqiaomon asked. “And Baihumon has to take care of a Gummymon. Why do you two get the things that don’t have to be watched after?”

“Because we are the eldest of us four,” Ebonwumon replied. “And does it matter, the digivices work quickly and the only real set-back to it is opening a digigate back which still won’t take long.”

()()()

Two more days had passed and a digigate had opened in the chamber of the Sovereigns. “What is with this thing,” Baihumon questioned. “The digigate is opening but nothing is coming out. What should we do?”

“Here, digigate widen.” Ebonwumon shook one of his heads and the digigate got larger. As it did, it glowed half-black, half-white. Out of the black side fell a teenage girl. She had blonde hair that went down to the bottom of her shoulders, a thin freckly face, a tight red shirt, and shorts that went to mid-thigh.

“What the? Where am I?” she muttered before looking around. Upon noticing the four giant monsters surrounding her, she visibly tensed and fear appeared in her eyes. “Wh-who are you? Am I sleeping? I just remember finding a black little thingy on the ground at the mall.”

“No girl, you are not sleeping,” Zhuqiaomon said. “That ‘thingy’ you found was a digivice. This is the Digital World, a world parallel to your own made of digital data. We are the four Sovereign, the leaders of the Digital World, and we sent for you and one other person who are destined to be the digidestined.”

“Digivice? Digital World? Digidestined? I don’t understand any of this.”

“Look, it is all very simple if you open your mind up to possibilities, like the possibility your world isn’t the only one. Now, back to what I was saying. We sent out two digivices to find you and another person from your world who shall travel with you. All beings in this world are called Digimon, short for digital monsters, as we are, quite simply, monsters made from data. Look, I don’t feel like explaining this so here.” One of the golden orbs around Zhuqiaomon broke out of the ring and flew towards her, touching her before turning around and returning to the ring. “There, that was the whole situation.”

“I think you broke her,” Baihumon said, staring at the girl who had tensed and totally froze.

“I-I-I’m okay. J-just one q-question, why me?”

“Because you were. There was no reason we choice you, or the other person who is taking strangely long to get here. But for now, let me introduce you to your partner. This is Yaamon.” The small ball-like digimon next to Zhuqiaomon jumped forward.

“Oh, hello. I’m Jamie.” She slowly stood up and walked over to Yaamon. “So I’m going to have to save the world with you.”

“Oomph.” A heavy thump came from the portal as a boy fell out.

“Ah, there you are,” Ebonwumon said. “I wonder why it took so long. Stand up boy; let’s get a good look at you. You will be one of our saviors.”

“Savior? Wow, this is so cool! Where am I? Are you guys aliens? Was that an alien trap I walked into? Or is this an alternate universe and that was a wormhole?” the boy spoke quickly and excitedly, seeming like a small child even though he appeared to be in his teens.

“Err, that was more excited than I was expecting,” Ebonwumon replied, surprised. “That second one is more accurate; this is the Digital World, a world parallel to your own-”

“Made out of digital data? So this is like a computer world? And what are you, Digibeings?”

“Actually we’re called Digimon, but close. How do you know all this already?”

“Well digital couldn’t mean much and that wormhole was lined with 1’s and 0’s so it was kinda obvious. Oh, hello,” he turned towards Jamie that was still next to Yaamon. “Hey, you’re from my art class, Jamie Bach right?”

“Well, yes. How are you taking this so calmly?”

“I’ve always dreamed of going to an alternate universe or alien planet, this is my dream. Who’s the head?”

“I’m Yaamon! Who are you?” Yaamon excitedly greeted.

“The name’s Grant! Grant Hazelwood. Nice to meet you Yaamon. Who are the big guys?”

“We are the Digimon Sovereign,” Azulongmon replied. “We are the leaders of the Digital World. We are experiencing a crisis that required the summoning of you two as digidestined using the digivices.”

“Digivice, that’s what this is called?” Grant asked, holding up the small white device. “Clever, a digital device called a digivice. So, what is this crisis?”

“Here” one of Azulongmon’s blue orbs came down and touched Grant before returning to the circle. “That orb held much knowledge and transferred some of it too you and should answer any of your questions.”

“It does,” Grant replied, “except for one. According to that info orb I’m supposed to have a partner, where are they?”

“Well come on over here. We can’t save a world if you stay over there.”

“This is going far better than expected,” Ebonwumon mused. “I was expecting more major freak-outs from both of you. Now then, we don’t expect you two to just go out in the world blindly and try and save us. We have set up for a few of our generals to train you and your digimon in basic fighting and survival and you’ll start tomorrow. For now, just try and process everything that is going on and walk right out of that big door over in the back of the room. It has touch open coding so you just have to put a hand on it to open it. Yaamon and Gummymon have been with us for a few days now and know the basic layout and were everything important is so they can lead you around, if you need anything ask one of the digimon around the place.”

“Brother, you’re getting long-winded,” Baihumon cut in. “I think they get the point. You may go, we don’t need you in here anymore and me and my brothers need to talk. Please, have a good night.”

“Cool,” Grant replied. “I’m a bit hungry so I think me and Gummymon will go grab something to eat. Where’s the kitchen.”

“I’m hungry too,” Yaamon said. “Here, I’ll show you guys the way to the kitchen. Come on!” The small virus started hopping to the door, Grant excitedly following holding Gummymon and Jamie lagging behind a bit. After the four left the room, Azulongmon spoke up.

“I have a strange feeling. They’re taking this very well, especially Grant. Most of the others seemed at least a bit worried like Jamie was, but he was excited and not actually surprised by all this.”

“Well that may not be a bad thing; at least one of them is fine with coming here. For now, there is no point in worrying. We have the helixes ready to give them, right?”

“Yes brother,” Zhuqiaomon replied. “Clavisangemon is protecting them until it is time to give them to the digidestined.”

Here is chapter two. I will be using a Wednesday-Saturday update schedule for this story so chapter three will be here Wednesday. Happy reading!

Helix 2: Training for the Journey

“Hello little friend.”

“Oh, who are you sir?”

“It doesn’t matter, I go by many names.”

“Well then what should I call you?”

“Call me friend, that’s what everyone calls me.”

“Okay mister. Why are you talking to me?”

“Because I want to be your friend, kid. I’m trying to create a group of seven powerful digimon, including myself. I already have five and was wondering if you’d be willing to be number six.”

“You really think I’m powerful? But I’m only a Rookie and you’re a Mega! I’d be like a gnat compared to you!”

“No, I admit you are not very powerful now, but I see great potential. You will one day be almost as strong as me. Someday, or today. If you accept to join my group then I’ll give you a boost that will release your potential. You’ll take on a Mega form and gain power beyond that of a normal Mega. So what do you say? Or do you want to talk to your parents first?”

“Parents? I don’t have any parents, a virus attacked my village when I was little and I was the only one able to survive the attack.”

“Well that’s sad, but it might be a sign. You were able to stand an attack that wiped out Megas and Ultimates as a baby, after all.”

“I guess you may be right. Alright, I’m in!”

“Good, here’s that power boost. It’ll hurt a bit at first, but then it will feel very, very good.” A black blast erupted from the small area the two digimon were at before fading. “How does it feel?”

“It-it-it feels wonderful. I feel so powerful!”

“Good, number six. Come, we need to get going. I’ll introduce you to the others and then it will be time to find number seven.”

“What the heck? Who is that?” Jamie pushed herself up on her shoulder. Her and Grant had been given two connected bedrooms with a bed and a crib for their partners.

“That was Aurumon,” Yaamon muttered sleepily from the crib, “He wakes all the digimon up at seven each day. Don’t worry; we don’t have to get up until his second rounds at nine. Night.”

“Aurumon? They have a living alarm clock? This world is even stranger than I thought, and after seeing the sovereign and that Chuumon chef I thought this place was pretty strange.”

“I said night, which means I’m trying to go back to sleep. Please be quiet,” Yaamon requested.

“Oh, sorry,” Jamie whispered. “I think I’ll get some more sleep too.”

“Agh! My face!” a loud screaming came from the next room, shocking Jamie and Yaamon awake.

“Oh my god, what happened?” Jamie said under her breath, getting up and walking over to the door. “Hey, what happened?”

“I, uh, fell out of bed,” Grant answered from the other side of the door. “I fell on my face and I think I broke my nose.”

“Then have Gummymon take you to the Medical Wing!” Yaamon angrily yelled. “I’m trying to get some sleep here!”

“Thanks, I think I’ll do that. It really hurts.”

()()()

“And then this door on the right,” Yaamon said from Jamie’s arms.

“Are you sure this time? Last time we went into the kitchen instead,” Jamie asked, walking into the door Yaamon indicated.

“Pretty sure, because this is the training room,” Yaamon replied. The room was barren of any sort of decorations except for a bamboo plant in a pot in each corner of it. In the center stood Grant and Gummymon. “Hello, where is the general we’re supposed to be getting lessons from?”

“He hasn’t shown up yet. I wonder where he is,” Grant replied.

“I was waiting for the girl,” a deep voice said from an undistinguishable point in the room.

“Seriously, hiding somewhere? That is so cliché,” Grant muttered.

“Did you just call the great Gaiomon cliché?” A black armor-clad samurai appeared directly across from the door. He had a dragon’s head with long grey hair, multiple blade-like horns, and large draconic feet. “No one makes fun of the Great Gaiomon, child. You are lucky you are one of the digidestined boy, or I might have chopped your head off with my Kiku Rin.” Two jagged blades appeared in his hands as he finished the sentence.

“Sorry,” Grant said, putting his hands up defensively. “I didn’t know you would be so strong Mister Gaiomon.”

“General Gaiomon, I am no mister. Mister is for businessmen, I am a master warrior. “

“Oh, sorry General Gaiomon. Are you the general that the Sovereign said would teach us about fighting and survival and stuff?”

“Yes and no. Many of us will be teaching you various things. I was told to meet you first to give you digidestined something special, but I am not your first teacher.”

“What is it?” Jamie asked.

“Yeah, I wanna know,” Yaamon agreed.

“I brought this, digitize!” Gaiomon’s swords disappeared and he held out his hands. A small yellow orb appeared in both of his palms. “These are digital intelligence gaining initiatives. They are special programs for your digivices that let you scan anything in the digital world and if there is data for it in storage you’ll get scan data. Here, hold up your digivices.” The teens did as told and Gaiomon pushed the orbs of energy into their digivices. “There, try it out, just point it at me one of you.”

“Other then your name, I don’t get what any of this means,” Jamie told Gaiomon.

“Oh well it is rather simple,” the dragon samurai responded. “According to the Sovereign, they granted you knowledge on the world with one of their digicores so I’d think you’d already know this.”

Jamie winced as Gaiomon stopped talking. “Yes, I remember now. The digicore thing did explain a lot of stuff. I must have forgotten it somehow, but I remember now.”

“Well information transfers are rather unreliable; the information can come and go at random. It wouldn’t do much good for you to just randomly forget stuff when you need it, so a quick review.”

“I thought you said you weren’t our first teacher,” Grant cut in. “Which means shouldn’t we be going on to the actual first teacher.”

“Shush kid, I’m trying to help you out here. I’ll just go over the information in the scan and then let you kids go. The name is obvious so I’ll skip that. Type is not important so I’ll also skip that. As for attribute, there are four attributes: Data, Virus, Vaccine, and Unknown. Data digimon get stronger when battling Vaccines, Vaccine digimon get stronger against Viruses, and Virus digimon get stronger against Datas, while Unknown are neutral. Level stands for evolutionary level, which there are six of: Fresh, In-Training, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega; in that order. As digimon grow stronger and win battles they go up in evolutionary rank.”

“Why are ultimates second to last? Ultimate does mean final, so I’d think it would be the last one.”

“Kid, shut up already,” Gaiomon replied to Grant’s cut-in. “Anyways, as digimon move up in level there power increases exponentially, a Mega being more powerful than countless Fresh digimon. As for other data, it’s just other data and can be helpful or useless; it all depends on the situation. There, that’s all the explanation for now, so you kids can get going. If you ever need to see me, then see someone else and don’t bug me.” Gaiomon flashed white and disappeared.

“That was odd,” Jamie muttered. “He seemed to be in a bit of a rush.”

“Well he did say he wasn’t our first teacher for the day so he was probably just trying to finish up quick,” Grant replied. “Although what the digivice said for his other data is odd, I wonder what this X-Antibody is. I doubt we’re getting an answer now and I guess that his abrupt disappearance is our signal to get going on to the next class.” He pulled a folded up piece of paper from his pocket and opened it. “According to this we’re going to learn to distinguish between harmful and safe foods with Chef Chuumon next. Well, let’s get going.”

“Yay, cafeteria!” Yaamon shouted, bouncing out of Jamie’s arms and to the door.

“Garden actually,” Gummymon said quietly. “The paper says to go to the garden.”

“Well then, yay garden!”

The day passed, quickly at some points and slowly at others, with the four learning basic survival and knowledge, with lunch breaks at a bit past noon. Despite all the knowledge, nothing much happened until the second to last class of the day-Basic Fighting. The four returned to the same dojo room they went to that morning to meet Gaiomon. In the middle of the room, meditating was an angelic digimon. He had white armor with a yellow cross on the front, yellow sun emblems in the front of his shoulders and a red tight suit under his armor with a long sash coming out the front. His head had a tight helmet on it and he floated using his six angelic wings. A large yellow key floated next to him.

The angel smiled and stood up, grabbing hold of the key. “Seems like your training took quick, you scanned me immediately. Of course, Grant, you always had a desire from knowledge and I’m sure you would have done so just because you could get information that way, whether you were trained to or not.”

“Yes,” Grant replied simply. “So you have this X-Antibody too, like Gaiomon. May I ask what it is?”

“I don’t think that’s important right now,” Jamie told him. “We’re here for battle training; we can probably stop by that big library we passed earlier after the next class.”

“Someone seems eager to fight,” Yaamon joked.

“Well not really, but we’ll probably have to and if you guys can’t fight well then we’re as good as dead.”

“You think very logically,” Clavisangemon said. “But I don’t believe it will take too long to explain. The X-Antibody is a special coding in the data of some digimon. It supplies great amounts of power, pushing hem beyond the power of a normal digimon the same level as them.”

“No, they do not. Not all digimon’s digicores can handle the X-Antibody. There are those who can take it in and draw power from it, and then there are those who get energy boosts, but are slowly torn apart from the inside by the antibody. Unfortunately, your partners are both in the latter group and cannot use the X-Antibody.”

“Well that stinks,” Yaamon complained. “I wouldn’t mind extra power.”

“You have another method of getting extra power,” Clavisangemon said, twirling his key. “Your partnerships grant you great powers, enough to equal X-Antibody and plus some. It will allow you to reach new levels of digivolution much quicker than you would naturally.”

“Speaking of digivolution,” Yaamon said. “Do you have any extra power that we could use to kick it up a notch? I’m not sure I can fight much evil as an In-Training.”

“Yaamon, be respectful,” Gummymon said.

“It is okay, as I actually do. It’s not extra as I was given it to give to you, but it will help out.” Clavisangemon spun his key again. Two small orbs of energy, one black, one white, appeared in front of him. “Digidestined, please hold up your digivices as they are the catalyst for your digimon digivolution.”

“Okay,” the two digidestined said, holding up their digivices. The orbs flew into their respective digivice, the black one into Jamie’s black digivice and the white one into Grant’s white one. “Digivolution activate!” The phrase seemed to flow out perfectly, as if they were always meant to say it. Their digivices glew, followed by their partners.

Where Yaamon sat, a new digimon that looked like a young child now stood. His skin was purple except for a white spot on his face. He had ears like Yaamon’s, a pointy tail, clawed feet, and was wearing an orange bandana around his neck and matching gloves. He had a smile on his face matching the yellow happy face on his chest. “Whoa, I got hands and feet!”

Gummymon grew into a blue tapir-like digimon with brown fur on her back, head, and pointed fan-like ears. She had two small tusks, a metal helmet on the top of her head and a golden band around her left leg. Instead of back legs, cloud of steam came out of where they would have been. Unlike Impmon, she just looked over herself without commenting.

“Cool, Yaamon grew bigger!” Jamie said excitedly.

“And Gummymon appears to have become a boar,” Grant observed.

“Tapir actually, I’m a Tapirmon now.”

“And I’m an Impmon, not a Yaamon.”

“So you digivolved,” Grant said, remembering what they had learned about a few hours previously about digimon digivolution. “Is this permanent, or will they return to In-Training?”

“They should stay in this form,” Clavisangemon replied. “But any level above this will be temporary and they will eventually dedigivolve. Now, before we go any farther, please scan your partners.”

“What does it mean, ‘Digivice of Light’ and Digivice of Light’?” Impmon asked.

“Oh, do you not know the prophecy? The reason you four are here is because of the fourth prophecy. Let’s see if I can remember it:
‘The enemies of the world shall fall.
They shall then be arisen by the four kings and join them.
A new evil shall rise to replace them.
To stop them, the Sovereign shall call two humans to the world,
One to control light and one to control darkness.
They shall use the twelve helixes of power to achieve perfection.’
There are three other lines as all the prophecies have nine, but I can’t remember the rest.”

“Wait, the fourth prophecy? So this sort of thing has happened before.” Jamie asked, concerned.

“No, not like this. Tragedies have struck before, but never anything like this. When the Digital World was still young, seven prophecies were created and each was said to foretell a future disaster that would require the calling of digidestined. The sixth was the first to happen, quite a long time ago. The third happened about a half a century ago. This one, the fourth, is happening third. This still leaves four prophecies to come afterwards, but only this one is your problem.”

“If I may ask, what are these helixes of power?” Impmon questioned.

Clavisangemon turned towards the imp and smiled. “They are these,” he said with a snap. He spun his key again, a line of light being left in the path of its edge’s rotation. The light quickly filled in, becoming a large circle of light. “Zenith Gate.” He put the key in the middle of the light circle and turned it to the left. Two small orbs emerged from it, surrounded by helixes of data. One was black with a red symbol on it that resembled a sun made out of three circles within each other and eight triangles pointing towards each direction, the ones pointing to the cardinal directions being bigger than the ones that didn’t. The other was white with a symbol similar to the others, with one small circle and eight spikes sticking out of it, but on this one the cardinal points were thin while the others were thick. “Well, these are two of them. We had all the helixes safe, but whoever you will be fighting against somehow snuck all the others away. I am not quite sure how they did it or why they haven’t gotten these two yet, so I always keep them on me.”

“Well that still doesn’t explain what they are,” Impmon pointed out.

“Good point. Simply, these helixes can be used to let you chosen digimon digivolve to higher levels. There are six for each of you, two for getting to Champion, two for getting to Ultimate, and two for getting to Mega. Each of the pairs of two have a helix of virtue, representing a virtue of their holder, and a helix of growth, representing the desire to grow stronger to protect something or someone in the digimon. There are two ways to use a helix: double overlay and cross overlay. I would try to explain them, but it would be very difficult and when the time comes to use them, your digivices will send a pulse of knowledge through you and tell you what to do. I believe that’s everything, so class over. For now, go rest. You still have another class today, but it doesn’t start for an hour and you’ll probably need a small rest period.”

“So we aren’t practicing battling today?” Grant asked.

“No, I don’t think so. Now then, I need to attend to my meditation, so you youngsters can go.” Clavisangemon sat down on the ground and slowly floated up with his wings, his key floating next to him as the chosen four left the room. ‘Oh wait, come back! I forgot to give you guys the helixes.” The chosen children ran back in urgently. Clavisangemon instructed them to hold up their digivices as they’ve done many times already and gave them their helixes, the black one with the larger symbol to Jamie and the white one with the smaller symbol to Grant. He then resumed his meditation again and let the teens go. “That would’ve been bad to forget,” he mumbled to himself after they left.

()()()

Their final class (A class on useful knots with General Gaiomon) flew by quickly. As did dinner and their free time between then and bed. Night had soon fallen and they returned to their rooms. The cribs for the digimon had been replaced by beds before they had gotten there and they all quickly went to sleep. In the middle of the night, a somewhat familiar sound went through the building.

“Something about an emergency and an attack,” Impmon sleepily muttered.

“Okay, night. Wait what?!” Jamie shot up in bed. “We have to get up. You awake over there, Grant and Tapirmon?!”

“Yeah,” Grant said, opening the door between the rooms. “Grab your stuff, there is a digimon here that the sovereign sent. He’s supposed to escort us out of here because the place is under attack.”

“Okay,” Jamie replied. She grabbed a backpack with some food, a flask of water, and some spare clothes that she got from one of the workers earlier that day. She then slipped her digivice into the pocket of her pajama pants she was wearing and grabbed the still sleeping Impmon, carrying him over her shoulder. “I’m ready.” She walked into Grant’s room to see him, Tapirmon, and a digimon that looked like a human wearing a white top, baggy pants, and matching gloves with yellow buttons or lining on them in various places. He also had a purple belt around his waist, a flat odd looking face, monkey ears, and a monkey’s tail.

“Hello. I am Makuramon, servant of Baihumon. I was ordered to get you four far away from here. Come.” He ran quickly into the hallway, the four trailing behind him and barely able to keep up. After a few minutes of running, he stopped in front of a dead end and let them catch up. “Is everyone here? Boy, girl, Tapirmon, Impmon. Yes, everyone is here. Treasure Ball.” A purple ball appeared in Makuramon’s hand that he pushed against the dead-end, causing it to disappear, revealing a corridor. He pushed the chosen four in before walking in himself, causing the wall to reappear. “Follow.”

Makuramon took off running again, the four keeping up a bit better because they expected it this time. They eventually came across another dead-end, Makuramon repeating his treasure ball to make it disappear too. This time, they came out in a forest. “Hurry, run forward, I’ll trail you and protect.”

“Okay Makuramon,” Grant said. “Come on Tapirmon.” They took off running, Jamie trailing a bit with Impmon. They had been running for what could have been ten minutes or three hours, there was no indication of time and everything looked so similar they couldn’t tell how far they’d run. Eventually, a clearing appeared that they ran into.

“Deep Sorrow.” They looked around for the source of the dark voice that said this, but found nothing. Suddenly, Makuramon jumped out of a tree into the air when he seemed to be hit by a strong, invisible force. “Guilty Claw.” A large winged figure appeared on top of Makuramon before shoving a large claw through the monkey digimon.

“Wh-what are you?!” Makuramon yelled confusedly. “I’ve never seen anything like you before.”

“I am perfection. Now die. Deep Sorrow.” Makuramon screamed as another invisible force hit him, knocking him off the figure’s claws and throwing him to the ground hard. His body lay there for a second before he stood back up slowly and weakly.

“I-I’m no-not done just yet. Treasure Ball!” Another purple orb appeared in the monkey digimon’s hands, growing larger and larger, eventually getting to the point that it could hold five of him.

“Fool,” the figure in the sky said. “That won’t hurt me and it will use so much power that it would either kill you or revert you to your Fresh form where I could easily kill you. And then I can kill the digidestined.”

“Who said I was aiming at you?” Makuramon lowered the Treasure Ball to face the digidestined and their partners. “Treasure Ball!” He shot the large ball at them. As it hit them, it sucked them into itself and held them as it quickly sped off, leaving eyesight in a matter of seconds.

“So you helped them get away. It doesn’t matter; you are already breaking into data.” Makuramon looked down at his feet which where quickly breaking down to data, followed by his legs, waist, chest, and finally his head. When the deva had finished breaking down, the mysterious figure in the sky disappeared, flying after the digidestined. “That fool only delayed the inevitable; I shall kill the digidestined no matter what.”

Thank you digipoke. Here is the third chapter, read and enjoy! And please review.

Helix 3: After the Battle

“How did the attack go, Sloth?”

“Well sir. We destroyed large chunk of their defenses before the Sovereign and Old Demon Lords showed up and forced a retreat. All deva are dead except for Vikaralamon, Vajramon and Pajiramon, too. It seems that the digidestined already got the remaining two helixes and escaped with Makuramon’s help, but Project Neo killed Makuramon and then started tracking down the digidestined. According to him, Makuramon used a Treasure Ball and all his energy to launch the digidestined far away very quickly.”

“Well it isn’t very good that they got away, but at least they only have one helix each, meaning they can’t get above champion. So, Sloth, how do you like your powers?”

“I like them very much Pride, thank you.”

“You’re welcome Sloth. Also, can you go get the others? I think that now that we have kicked things off against the new chosen ones, it is time to start our long-term plan.”

“Okay sir, I’ll get straight to that.”

“Good.”

()()()

“What is it?” A voice woke the four chosen ones up, still trapped in the treasure ball.

“I’m not sure, but are those humans inside it?” another voice said. “This can only mean that the sovereign called new digidestined. Someone open it up.”

“Here,” a third voice said. “Sparkling Blow!” Two punches resounded off the treasure ball before it popped like a bubble. Its inhabitants fell to the ground before getting up and rubbing the multiple sore spots on their bodies. “Who are you? Are you the digidestined?” They turned to look at the source of the question, a short metal ball Digimon with muscular arms ending in red boxing gloves and red metal-toed boots.

“Yes, we are,” Grant said, slipping his digivice out of his pocket and pointing it at the Digimon.

“So that’s a digivice,” one of the other voices said. It was very high, but when they turned to see its source they found it to be a large version of Mamemon with black boots and a bandage X on his body. “I’ve heard legends but never thought I’d get to see one.”

“Well don’t forget me,” the second voice from before said. It was very deep, but it came from a round Digimon even shorter than Mamemon. It looked like a round robot, with a metal helmeted head, an arm ending in a red gloved hand and three wrist blades sticking out, and the other arm was replaced by a small cannon.

“Hey, you can’t just leave! You’re the digidestined; you’re supposed to help Digimon.”

“Yeah, no. We were told our mission is to save the digital world from some strong virus Digimon who’s gathering an army, we aren’t meant to help every Digimon we come across who has a small problem. That’ll just slow us down.”

“Grant,” Tapirmon said. “Let’s just help them. It won’t hurt.”

“Yeah,” Jamie agreed. “And besides, haven’t you ever read a story or watched TV? Helping people randomly is always good.”

“Plus we might get paid,” Impmon pointed out.

“I’m not sure I still want their help,” Bigmamemon squeaked. “They want payment.”

“Don’t worry,” a dark voice said from above the seven. “They’ll be dead before you have to pay them anything.”

“What? Who’s there?” Jamie looked up, but couldn’t see anything.

“I’m behind you.” Jamie swung around and was grabbed by a large claw that wrapped around her entire body. The creature that held her pulled her close to its face-a gold mask with six eyes and large demonic horns. The rest of it wasn’t much less evil looking, with large red tattered wings, long arms that stretched to the ground that sprouted red spikes and had large cutting nails, a shirtless chest with odd red balls running up one side, spiked boots strapped to leather pants by multiple belts, and long grey hair that stretched down to its thin waist.

“Jamie!” Impmon yelled. “Bada boom!” He snapped his fingers, creating a small fire and threw it at the creature. The fire hit it and disappeared without doing any damage. “Grr. Summon!” A ball of fire appeared in one of Impmon’s hands and a ball of ice in the other. “Night of Fire! Night of Blizzard!” He threw the two balls of energy at the demon holding Jamie, but they too disappeared when they hit it. “Let go of her! Machine Gun Kick!” The small fiend jumped towards the larger demon, attempting to kick him but being knocked back by a kick from the enemy. Impmon flew back, hitting a tree and fainting.

“What is it?” Tapirmon asked, hiding behind Grant.

“Let’s see,” he said, pulling out his digivice.

“Scanning. No data available, target unknown.”

“What? The digivice can’t identify it.”

“Because I am no normal Digimon,” it said. “I am Neodevimon. An ultimate level virus Digimon with power equal to a mega. I was created by my masters as an ultimate killing machine.”

“Big Smiley Bomb!”

“Smiley Bomb!”

“Metal Smiley Bomb!” The Mamemon brothers each threw a smiley face shaped bomb at Neodevimon, one larger than the other two and one was red with a metal top half. They hit Neodevimon and disappeared.

“Fools, I am immune to any projectiles and your physical moves are too weak to hurt me. I am invincible! Deep Sorrow!” Neodevimon held up his free arm, pointing it at the Mamemon. A black aura surrounded it that shot off at them.

The resulting Digimon looked like a large yellow smiley face with a king’s crown, a royal cape, and royally robed arms and legs. “Oh yeah. Purple Rain.” Princemamemon snapped and a cane appeared in his hands. He twirled the cane and pointed it at the attack. A purple blast came out of the tip, engulfing the Deep Sorrow and hitting Neodevimon. The large demon was knocked off balance, his hands loosening allowing Jamie to fall to the ground.

“OWW!” She screamed as she hit the ground hard.

“Jamie!” Impmon weakly yelled, lifting his head.

“How are you feeling?” Grant asked her. “Anything broken?”

“I don’t think so, but I’m sore all over from him holding me so hard. I could barely breathe.”

“Well come on.” Grant helped her up and led her over next to Impmon before setting her against one of the trees. “There, just rest for now.” He then turned back towards the battle and took out his digivice.

“I-Impossible! That shouldn’t have hit me! I cannot forgive that,” Neodevimon yelled angrily at the smiling Digimon. “Guilty Claw!” He jumped at Princemamemon, his wings spreading out allowing him to zip above the ground. The demon jutted out one of his giant claws, aiming it at his enemy.

“Ha-ha! Smiley Warhead!” Princemamemon took off running at Neodevimon, jumping as they got close to each other.

“Paralyzing Claw!” Neodevimon’s claw glowed green and he slashed forward with it, hitting Princemamemon dead on and stopping him dead in his tracks.

“Wh-what is this? I can’t move!”

“My paralyzing claw, it freezes you in place. I will come back to you, but for now I have to deal with the digidestined.” He turned towards Grant and Tapirmon. “Starting with this boy and his pet.”

“I-I’m scared Grant,” Tapirmon stuttered.

“So am I, but we have to be strong. If we die now then the Digital World will follow. We need to stand up against this demon.” As Grant finished talking, his digivice started glowing in his pocket and he took it out. “What’s this? My digivice, it feels so powerful. I know what to do Tapirmon.” The small symbol from the helix appeared on the digivice’s screen, creating a bright light. “Helix of Light’s Growth! Double Overlay Digivolution!”

“Fool, I’m still as strong as a mega while you are a mere champion. I’ll crush you, Guilty Claw!”

“Mirage Dancer.” Shimaunimon disappeared before Neodevimon could hit her and reappeared behind him. “Wild Thunder.” A white thunderbolt shot up from her horn before arcing back down towards Neodevimon.

“Are you stupid? I can only be hit by physical attacks.” He took the thunderbolt with a laugh. “Here, I’ll give you a free move before I kill all of you.”

“Okay, Anti-Freeze.” She turned her head so that the horn was aimed at Princemamemon and shot a blast of white light at him.

“Oh, that feels good,” the royal Digimon said as he stretched, the paralysis fading. “Thanks Shimaunimon. Now then, Smiley Warhead!” He rushed at Neodevimon again, this time hitting the demon who was still frozen at the surprise of Shimaunimon’s move. A blast of light erupted from Princemamemon as he made contact.

“No, the light.” Neodevimon jolted back, escaping the fading blast of light. “This is not the last you’ll see of me!” With that, he turned and quickly flew away.

“Whew, we would have died without you Shimaunimon,” Grant said, walking up to her and rubbing her mane.

“Thanks,” she replied before shrinking back to a Tapirmon. “It’s a good thing I had Anti-Freeze. But now is no time for celebration, you heard Neodevimon. He’ll be back and we should get Impmon and Jamie some help.”

“Oh crap, you’re right.” Grant ran over to the two. “How are you guys feeling now?”

“Lord Pride, I have news for you,” Neodevimon said. He stood in a large room talking to his leader who was sitting in a throne hidden under a cloak of darkness.

“Yes Neodevimon? What is it?” Pride asked.

“I battled the digidestined, but they also partnered with some blasted Mamemon. The Mamemon DNA digivolved together into a Princemamemon that gave me serious trouble. I was able to paralyze him when the digidestined of light made his partner digivolve to Champion, a Shimaunimon. It used its Anti-Freeze ability to unparalyze The Princemamemon who was able to drive me off. However, before this I was able to seriously injure the digidestined of darkness and her partner, an Impmon. They should both be out of commission for a while and open to attacks.”

“Well that is good Neodevimon. You have earned yourself a good rest, you seem tired. Go to your room and rest, you will be needed later. I’ll make sure to tell one of the others about this so that they can go handle the digidestined.”

“Yes sir, Lord Pride,” Neodevimon said with an awkward salute. He then walked off like he was told to.

“I will have to look into this Princemamemon, he may be a thorn in my side,” Lord Pride muttered to himself before getting up and walking out of the room through a door he had installed in the darkness behind his throne.

()()()

Meanwhile, in a small village, two Digimon-a Lucemon Falldown and a Seraphimon-were leaning over a small red Digimon. It looked like a small head with three little bumps on its top. An orange double circle with a small pitchfork like design in the middle was on its forehead.

“This disgusts me,” the Lucemon said.

“The murder of a baby or the fact it was by someone trying to steal your power?” The Seraphimon asked, suspicious.

“Both really. Although, probably that someone is trying to steal my power more than the murder. Give me five minutes and I can undo this Seal of Pride on him so he can be reborn as a digiegg, but it will be harder to stop someone who can take my powers. You do remember one of the most dangerous parts of controlling pride, right?”

“Yes, I know what you’re talking about. It appears that there aren’t any clues in this village as to the murderer, so let’s finish breaking these seals so that these Digimon can be reborn and get going back to HQ.”

“Sure. Hey, what’s that? I think I just saw something move over there.” Lucemon flew over to a small alley and looked into it. “Seraphimon, get over here. There’s a Blackgatomon over here who appears to still be alive, but just barely.”

“What?” Seraphimon rushed over. “Oh dear, come on. I’ll take her and try and find a healer near here to help her. You finish up removing the seals and try to help and other survivors you find.” Seraphimon grabbed the small black cat and took off flying.

“This is madness,” Lucemon said under his breath. “I need to find whoever this is and kill them. Set an example for anyone who tries to steal my power in the future.” He looked around and saw the dead bodies of more Digimon. “And anyone who carries out mass murders like this again.”

“But, you used to do stuff like this all the time.” Lucemon’s voice got deeper as he spoke.

And here is chapter four. Come on people, I know you're reading, review for pete's sake!

Helix 4: A New Enemy

“You wanted to see me Lord Pride?”

“Yes, Lust, I did. I want to ask, have you heard the news about the digidestined?”

“No lord, I just know that they are in the Digital World.”

“Well let me catch you up then. They were staying in the Sovereign Land when we launched our attack on it. They escaped with Makuramon’s help, but Neodevimon killed the blasted monkey and started tracking the digidestined down. He quickly caught up and almost killed the digidestined of darkness and her partner before being driven off by a Princemamemon that teamed up with the digidestined. I am giving Neodevimon a break and wish for your help. It seems like the digidestined went to a small village near the habitat of the blue digiroses. I want you to send a Digimon to destroy all the blue digiroses except one and to protect the last one.”

“Okay Lord Pride, I’ll get to finding the perfect Digimon to send and get them going. One question though.”

“Yes Lust, what is it?”

“Why not just send me or one of the others? Or why not go yourself, you could easily destroy them.”

“Your question is valid, but I have my reasons Lust. I will tell you and the others when the time comes to launch our personal attacks, but until then I don’t want any of you out on the front lines.”

“Okay Lord Pride. Well I must get going then.”

()()()

“Are you okay?” Grant’s voice woke up Jamie who looked around. She was lying on a soft mattress in a small, colorful room.

“Y-yeah. What happened?” she replied.

“We got you and Impmon back to the Mamemon brothers’ village to the local healer. She gave you some medicine to help with your soreness and you passed out. She also said that you will be fine and that nothing was broken or damaged.”

“Okay. Wait, where’s Impmon?”

“He took some serious damage in that battle,” Grant replied, a grim tone entering his voice. “He was paralyzed below his neck and barely able to keep consciousness. The healer’s trying her best and is able to keep him alive, but he’s already reverted to Yaamon and he’s been passed out ever since we got here. She actually told me to wake you up and take you to him. Can you stand?”

“I think so,” Jamie said, turning so that her legs hung off the bed and slipped out onto her feet. “Yeah, I’m fine. I think that medicine is working because I can’t feel any pain at all.”

“That’s good,” Tapirmon quietly said from Grant’s side, alerting Jamie of her presence.

“Oh, hello Tapirmon. Where is Yaamon?” Jamie asked.

“Come with me,” Grant signaled, walking to the door. He led her through a few rooms before coming to a small door. “Yaamon and the healer are right through here. I have to go talk to the Mamemon brothers about something, and he is your partner, so you should probably go in by yourself.”

“Okay.” Jamie grabbed the door and opened it, walking in. The room on the other side was dim with smoke along the roof. In the center, a small bipedal Digimon stood over an unconscious Yaamon. The Digimon was a short humanoid with a pink head, pink antennae with heart-shaped ends, pink fairy wings, pink gloves, and pink boots. The rest of it was pure white. ”Oh, hello, are you the healer?”

“Yes,” the Digimon answered in a feminine voice without turning around. “You must be this little Digimon’s partner. No, my power is fading.” Jamie walked around the room so that she faced the healer face on, noticing that the pink head was actually just a large hood over the healer’s white head. One of her fingers sat on Yaamon, glowing with a dim pink light. “Heavy Beam.” The glow brightened a bit before fading. “I’m not sure if I can keep this up much longer. If my heavy beam totally goes out, Yaamon will probably die.”

“What? Isn’t there anything else you can do?” Jamie asked shocked from how blunt the fairy was. “Can I do anything to help?”

“Not unless you can work a miracle,” the healer replied.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you can do? Maybe you have some medicine or something that can help him?”

“I am barely keeping him alive, don’t you think I’d use a medicine that could help if I had one? I don’t have anything strong enough to help him and I’m running out of energy. I’m sorry, but I’m a Pucchiemon, not a miracle worker.”

“But he can’t die! We need him to save the world; if he dies we’ll all die.”

“I’m sorry miss, but he’s almost guaranteed to die. I only have enough energy for about a half hour, if you want though you may be able to help. There is a flower that is supposed to be a very powerful curative. Its natural habitat is just past the edge of the village, but it’s very rare and I’m not sure if you’d be able to find one in time.”

“I don’t care if it’s a long shot, I need to try,” Jamie replied. “What does it look like?”

“The flower is a light blue digirose. There’s an extra code in its make-up that changes it from the usual red of a digirose to blue and helps quickly repair damaged data. If you really want to try and get it, I’d suggest hurrying.”

“Y-yes, I’ll try my best.” Jamie ran out of the small room and left the building. She continued running before reaching the edge of the village and looked around, spotting a field of flowers. “I should look in there.” She ran into the field off flowers and started looking for the blue digirose. After what felt like hours of searching, she finally gave up. “This is hopeless, Yaamon’s going to die and it’s all because I can’t find this stupid blue digirose. No, this isn’t over. I can’t give up now.”

“What? This thing can detect it? Why didn’t you do that earlier?” She grabbed the digivice out of her pocket and looked at it. It was glowing slightly and an arrow displayed on it pointing off behind her. She turned around and followed the arrow, quickly coming upon a small cave outside of the flower patch. Inside of it stood a single blue rose surrounded by four large black plants with pink leaves. “That must be it. I should hurry up; I probably don’t have much time left if any.”

As she reached the digirose, one of the other plants opened up, revealing a mouth of sharp teeth, and started talking. “Why hello young girl. You wouldn’t be one of the digidestined, per chance, would you?”

“Of course she is,” another of the plants replied. “There aren’t exactly any other humans here.”

“Well then, it is time to carry out the mission,” a third replied.

“Quite, it is time to kill her,” the last said.

“Wh-what are you?” Jamie asked the plants.

“We are legion,” the first one started. “For we are-“

“Shut up, that joke isn’t funny,” the second interrupted. “Guys, time to show her our true form!” The cave shook wildly, knocking Jamie down. A mass of thorned vines shot out of the ground, surrounding the digirose and knocking Jamie back harshly. Four vines rose out with the four mouthed plants on the end, swinging around madly. A large bud formed at the top, creating a ring of leafs around it before opening up to reveal a large yellow flower face surrounded by giant purple leaves. “We are Blossomon!”

“An ultimate? I can’t fight this thing,” Jamie muttered to herself as she read the digivice. She looked at the mass of vines and caught a glimpse of the blue digirose as the tendrils moved around. “But if I don’t then all hope is lost. I have to fight.” Her digivice glowed in her hand, the large sun-like symbol glowing on it with a black light. “Helix of Darkness’s Virtue! Double Overlay Digivolution!” The light grew larger before fading suddenly.

“What was that?” Blossomon’s main head asked.

“I don’t know,” Jamie said, uncertain of what happened. “But whatever it was, I don’t want it to go to waste. Here I come!” She jumped at the giant plant.

()()()

“Wh-what’s happening?” Pucchiemon asked out loud. Her heavy beam had started to fade and Yaamon’s ears had begun to digitize when he started glowing and froze totally. Suddenly, a black spiral shot out of him, arcing before it hit the ceiling and the end landing on the floor, a shape appearing inside it.

“I’m Salamandemon, the digivolution of Yaamon. Well, Impmon but it seems I got a lot of power and skipped that digivolution. Does this mean I’m healed, miss healer?” the large red, flaming salamander asked.

“No,” Pucchiemon said, turning her eyes to the table where Yaamon’s frozen body still sat. “I think your digicore left your body somehow, but your body is still in critical condition just frozen-for now at least. However, I fear terrible things, because if you digivolved it was probably meant to protect your partner. The girl is trying to find a rare blue digirose right outside of town to help heal you, but I’m not sure where she could be so you may want to get going. I’ll try and regain some of my health and then get back to healing your body.”

“Thank you,” Salamandemon replied before walking out, a feeling tugging at him from the back of his mind leading him in a certain direction.

()()()

“You are holding up well girl, but not for much longer,” one of Blossomon’s heads said. Jamie had managed to avoid its attacks so far, but was obviously getting tired. “Face it, your doom is sealed. You know what, if you give up now I’ll spare your live. I’m sure my master can use someone like you. Maybe we can use that digivice of yours to give some power boosts to our members.”

“You do? Well I wouldn’t think so anymore, you’ve been out here for a while and Neodevimon said he beat up your little imp pretty good. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was already dead.”

“I’m not done quite yet. Blaze Blast!” A large fireball shot into the cave, hitting Blossomon and destroying some of his vines, including one of his heads. Jamie spun around and she and Blossomon turned their attention to the attacker, a large red salamander Digimon that was surrounded by flames.

“Wait,” she said as she finished reading the scan results. “Connected to the Digivice of Darkness? Does that mean? Is that you Impmon? You digivolved? Does this mean you are healed?”

“Yes it is me, and yes I digivolved,” Salamandemon replied. “But no, I’m not healed. I’m not sure how, but my digicore separated from my body and took on this form, kind of like a ghost.”

“A gh-ghost? So are you dead?”

“He will be when I’m through with him!” Blossomon said. “Ninja Flower!” It shot one of its vines at him, opening its head so that it could sink the sharp teeth in it onto the amphibian.

“Interrupting a conversation? Tsk tsk, didn’t your mother teach you better. Back draft!” The flames surrounding Salamandemon’s body flared up, engulfing the vine and destroying it. “Anyways, no I’m not dead. I guess that out of body experience would be a better description than a ghost. My body still doesn’t have long, though, so we should probably hurry this battle up and get that blue digirose. Let’s get dangerous. Blaze Blast!” He opened his mouth and created a fireball that he shot at the giant flower, hitting it dead in its main face.

“Yeah, go Salamandemon!” Jamie yelled excitedly.

“Thorn Whip!” Blossomon lashed out with one of its vines, grabbing Jamie and picking her up. “Listen up you stupid salamander. If you attack again we’ll squeeze the life out of your partner here. So back away now.”

“Okay, just don’t hurt her.” Salamandemon replied, backing up slowly.

“Striped Blaster.” A white blast hit the vine, breaking it and causing it to break into data. “Mirage Dancer.” Shimaunimon and Grant appeared under Jamie, catching her as she fell.

“Impmon? You digivolved into a flaming amphibian? I’m not the only one to find that odd, am I?”

“Actually, that is kinda odd,” Jamie muttered.

“Seriously? You guys are talking about that now? There is a giant pansy battling us and you comment on what I look like?”

“Pansy?! I am not a pansy!” Blossomon angrily yelled. “I am an, um, well I don’t know what kind of flower I am but I am no pansy! Ninja Flower!” It swung the last two vines with heads at the digidestined.

“Yes, it can. Blaze Blast!” The fireball struck Blossomon head on, burning its main head to ash and making its vines fall over dead. Jamie walked over to the blue digirose in the middle of the disintegrating vines, plucking it from the ground. “It looks like you have this taken care of; I have to go back to my body now. Please hurry.” Salamandemon’s figure started flickering and fading before disappearing.

“What was that about?” Grant asked as he helped Jamie back up onto Shimaunimon.

“I’ll tell you on the way back. How fast do you think it would take you to get us back to the healer’s place, Shimaunimon?” Jamie questioned the unicorn.

“About a minute,” she replied before dashing in the direction of the healer’s.

“After his digicore reentered his body he started getting much better,” Pucchiemon said, standing over a now conscious Yaamon. “I don’t think he will need that digiroses anymore.”

“R-really?” Jamie asked.

“Yep, but I could probably use that for a future patient. Can you set it down over there?”

“Sure,” she replied setting down the rose on a small table. “How are you feeling Yaamon?”

“I’m fine,” he replied from the small bed he was laying on. “I feel a lot better. Can you believe it, I digivolved?”

“Yeah, it was a real surprise, especially since I thought you were dead. How long until he can get out of bed?” Jamie turned towards Pucchiemon.

“He should be better by tomorrow,” she replied with a smile. “That will be one thousand bits, which is the currency of the Digital World in case you weren’t aware, please?”

“What?” Jamie blinked blankly.

“You don’t think I do this for free, do you? The medicines I use can be expensive sometimes and this was a tough job that drained me of my energy. The only reason I’m not going above a thousand is because you are a digidestined.”

“Give me a minute.” Jamie ducked out of the room and quickly located Grant. “Grant, the healer wants payment, what should I do?”

Grant slipped a wallet out of his back pocket and took a few gold coins out of it. “How much does it cost? The Mamemon brothers gave me two thousand for helping them out.”

“It costs one thousand.” Jamie replied before doing a quick double take. “What did you do that they paid you two thousand bits for?”

“It’s a long story that I really do not want to talk about,” he replied. “Also, if you see the Mamemon please warn me so we can get away before the notice us. Anyways, take these,” he handed her five of the coins. “Those are two-hundred bits, so five of them should cover it.”

“Thanks.” Jamie went back into the healer’s room and handed the coins to Pucchiemon. “There you go one thousand bits.”

“Thank you.” Pucchiemon smiled at Jamie before shooing her out of the room. “Now then, visiting hours are over and he needs his sleep, so please get out.”

“Okay, okay,” Jamie replied. “You don’t need to push.”

()()()

“How did Blossomon go, Lust?” Lord Pride questioned from his throne.

“Rather unfortunately,” Lust responded. “It was able to destroy most of the blue digiroses as the plan said, but was unable to take out the digidestined. Apparently, somehow the digicore of the darkness digidestined’s partner was able to escape its body and digivolve into a Salamandemon. It and the light digidestined’s partner Shimaunimon were able to destroy Blossomon. According to our Intel units the Digimon is making a full recovery and the digidestined will be on the road again tomorrow.”

“Hmm, that is rather bad. May I ask if the researchers finished their work on Neodevimon’s digicore yet?”

“I would not know sir; Envy is the leader of the researchers.”

“Well then you are dismissed Lust, you can go. Please tell Envy to come here while you are leaving.”

“Yes sir, I’ll make sure to tell her.”

“Thank you. I’d also like you to tell her to bring Neodevimon here; I think I have a plan to increase his strength.”

()()()

Seraphimon landed in front of the small healer’s building softly, holding the Blackgatomon carefully. “Let’s hope this place can help you.” He pushed the door open and walked in, seeing two human teenagers and a Tapirmon inside. “Oh, hello, would you children be the digidestined?”

“Oh, yes,” Grant replied. “Who are you?”

“I’m Seraphimon, one of the Sovereign’s generals. Is the healer here still in?”

“Yes sir,” Tapirmon replied quietly, pointing at the door to Pucchiemon’s room. “Right through that door.”

“Thank you.” The angel walked over to the door and pushed it open, walking into the room.

“I thought I told you to let him sleep,” the Pucchiemon inside said, standing over a sleeping Yaamon. She turned around and her eyes grew wide. “Oh, sorry, I thought you were that girl. What do you need help with sir?”

Seraphimon lowered his arms slightly, giving the fairy Digimon a better view of the Blackgatomon. “She’s in bad condition and really needs help quickly.”

“Well you’re in luck, I actually just got something that can help her,” the healer said with a smile. She grabbed the cat from Seraphimon and set her on the table before grabbing the blue digirose. “No matter how bad a condition she is, until she starts breaking down this little thing can help your friend.” The healer crumbled up the blue digirose in her hands before dropping them onto the Blackgatomon.

“Wh-where am I?” she asked, opening her eyes slightly. “Angels? Am I dead? Are you here to lead me to judgment?”

“No, you are not dead,” Pucchiemon said. “That will be two thousand bits, please.”

“Charge it to the Sovereign,” Seraphimon said, pushing the healer fairy away. “You aren’t dead thanks to this healer. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for your village.”

“What do you mean?” Blackgatomon rubbed her eyes and lifted herself up on her elbows.

“Your village was attacked by a very strong virus Digimon. As far as I know, you are the only survivor of the attack. I was wondering if you could remember anything about the attacker.”

“What? No. I remember getting tired and going into an alley to take a small catnap. I heard a crashing that woke me up, but when I opened my eyes some rubble from a building fell and hit me. That’s all I can remember, sorry. What did you say happened to my village?”

“It got destroyed, everyone killed. I’m sorry to be the one having to break this news to you, but it wouldn’t help to hide it. It is very important to get any clues to the identity of the virus as quickly as possible.”

“It’s okay; I guess you can’t control it. You know, I left my partner behind in you village and should probably be getting back to him. I will be sure to return, if you can remember anything please tell me when I get back.” Seraphimon left before the cat could reply and took off flying the second he got out of the door. “A dead lead. This isn’t getting us anywhere, that virus is still out and can create havoc. I won’t let this happen again.”

“The data of that destroyed Blossomon was returning and I wanted to absorb it, Lord.”

“Okay. How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine, why?”

“Because you will need to be at top condition for this.” The shadowed Lord Pride waved his hand, a glowing white orb surrounded by a helix of data appearing in it. He held up the helix of light, a symbol of an oddly shaped heart glowing on it. He then waved the other hand, a black orb appearing in it. He also held up the orb of darkness, an hourglass like shape with a rounded top glowing on it. “Two of the orbs of power, one of light and one of darkness. I will infuse your digicore with these and you will hopefully gain a large amount of power.”

“But lord!” Envy interrupted. “We don’t know if his digicore will even fuse with the helixes, and if it doesn’t then they will rip him apart bit by bit.”

“But I thought you tested his digicore for anything?” Lord Pride questioned.

“We did, but this is insanity. This is so crazy we never expected you to do it and didn’t test him.”

“Well then I guess it’s a risk we will have to take. Either power or death, I say it won’t be that bad. What do you say, Neodevimon?”

“If it can grant me power, I will do it,” Neodevimon replied, walking forward.

“Well then let’s do this.” Pride stood up and stepped forward slightly, holding out the helixes. “Prepare yourself.” The virus pulled back his arms before quickly shoving them forward, ramming the helixes into Neodevimon. The ultimate stumbled backwards before falling to his knees.

The digidestined were sleeping in the healer’s spare room, Grant having been forced into a sleeping bag on the floor while Jamie and Tapirmon taking the two beds in the room, when a loud meow followed by a sobbing voice woke them up. “My friends!” The voice yelled sadly. “My family! Everyone’s dead! Why, Sovereign, why? Why must I be the one to survive without anyone?”

“Who is that?” Tapirmon asked, concerned.

“I don’t know, but they sound miserable,” Grant muttered. “Someone should probably go see who it is.”

“Okay, come on,” Jamie said, pushing herself out of bed. “I’m not going alone because I suck at consoling people.”

“Do I have to,” the tired Grant asked.

“Yes, now come on.” Jamie kicked him lightly and walked over to the door.

“What?!” Jamie was taken back by the request. “What do you mean, kill you?”

“I mean, please kill me. My village was attacked and destroyed, my friends and family killed, my life destroyed. I have nothing to live for, please just put me out of my misery now.”

“I don’t think we can do that,” Grant replied awkwardly, trying to figure out a reason not to in case Blackgatomon asked for a reason, but failing.

“Well why not? I have no reason to live, so you would be doing me better by killing me.” She lifted her head, making eye contact with Grant. The pure honesty in them made him take a step back.

“Because, well, because. Jamie, some help?”

“Yaamon?” Jamie tried passing on the question.

“I think it’s time for a nap,” Yaamon said quickly, falling asleep within seconds.

“See!” Blackgatomon yelled angrily. “None of you can think of any reason to keep me alive! Just kill me already!”

“Talon Arrow.” Pucchiemon held up her hand, a small pink glow surrounding one of the fingers before shooting off as an energy arrow that hit Blackgatomon, knocking her out. “She needs some more rest; she seems to be suffering some form of PTSD after finding out her village got wiped out. You guys, however, can get going since you’ve paid and Yaamon is fully healed.” She picked up Blackgatomon and laid her out on the table.

“Y-yeah,” Grant’s voice cracked. “We should probably get going. Come on guys.”Once the four chosen ones walked out of the healer’s room, Grant punched the wall hard.

“Whoa!” Jamie was taken aback at the show of anger. “What was that about?”

“It’s about that Blackgatomon.” Grant turned around as he replied, barely holding back tears. “Her entire village was killed for power. Her friends, her family, I-I can’t forgive this. We need to find whatever monster did this and kill it.”

“Of course, but we need to keep calm,” Tapirmon tried to calm him.

“Look, you won’t understand. You don’t know what it’s like to lose family members.” Some of the tears got past Grant’s restraint and rolled down his face. “You haven’t had to suffer the loss of a loved one and the sting of regret like you could have done something, anything! Just one thing you could have done that would have changed it all.”

“Please calm down.” Jamie took a turn at trying to calm him. “What are you talking about? What happened? If we’re going to be a team we need to learn about each other.”

“O-okay, I should probably get it off my chest. But let’s get back to the room; I don’t want to talk about it out in the open like this.”

“Yay! Story time!” Yaamon excitedly yelled, killing the mood in two short sentences.

()()()

“How are you feeling Neodevimon?”

“I’m doing terrible, Envy. I can barely move and I’m sore all over.”

“Well I am sorry for that, I never expected Lord Pride to do something so insane. On a side note, Neodevimon no longer fits you as a name and we need to create a new name for you.”

“Any suggestions?”

“How do you feel about Neodaemon?”

“No, no, not that name. I can feel a name coming to me from my digicore. It’s incomplete but I can feel some of it.”

“Really? What name is it?”

“All I can feel is an A, everything else is blurry.”

“Well maybe it will come to you tomorrow, for now you should probably try and get rest. Good night, Neodevimon.”

()()()

“Okay, we’re here,” Jamie said. The four were back in the guest room, Jamie and Yaamon on one bed and Grant and Tapirmon on the other. “So, what is your story?”

“Well, have you ever heard of Hazelwood Productions?” Grant asked.

“The movie company? Yeah, my older brother is a big fan of there stuff. Why?” Jamie trailed off on the question. “You said your name is Grant Hazelwood, so I’m guessing this means you are related to the owner.”

“Yeah, he’s my dad.”

“I hate to kill the sentimentality,” Yaamon interrupted. “But this isn’t going to be some clichéd thing where the two of you got into a fight over something stupid, you yelled at him about how much you hated him, and he got in an accident and killed before you could apologize, is it?”

“Yaamon!” Jamie chastised with a small hit to his head (which knocked him off the bed as he was all head).

“That’s okay; I’d probably guess the same thing. No, that isn’t what happened. A few years ago, my father let go one of his top men because the employee had influenced actors into quitting from a lot of the company’s movies. Later, we found out he was also employed by a rival of my father’s company, White Oak productions. White Oak also sacked him because the guy’s only reason for employment was to drag down my dad’s company.”

“Anyways, the employee my dad fired got really angry and bribed our family’s limo driver into kidnapping me and my mother. My mom normally rode with me to my school because she worked in the afternoons and we were talking one morning in the limo when the driver turned us the wrong way. He passed it off as a detour and said the road was closed, but after a few minutes he ran off the road and took off speeding. He drove us to a small building a few miles into the desert outside of town. I’m not sure how long we were there, but they treated me and my mother horribly like we were animals.”

“That’s horrible.” Jamie interrupted this time.

“Jamie, stop interrupting,” Yaamon echoed.

“After some amount of time that just seemed like one long, terrible day, we were put back into the limo. The driver then drove me and my mom to the old bridge in town, do you know the one?”

“Yeah, I think so. So what happened?”

“Well, we were forced onto the bridge by two of our kidnapper’s thugs. Apparently, he was holding us for ransom, a half a million each. We were on one side and my dad and some police were on the other. My dad brought over two suitcases of money and set them down besides the lead kidnapper. They then led us back over the bridge, guns stuck into our backs. After we got to the other side, they quickly retreated back never taking there aims off of us so that the police would stay still. After they got back to the other side-” Grant stopped and turned his head down. “They started shooting. They got out two shots before the police started returning fire. They hit my arm and my mom and the police took down the four of them. My mom, the head kidnapper, and his two thugs got killed almost immediately. The limo driver lived four days in a coma from a shot to the head before dying.”

“That’s terrible.” Tapirmon said sadly. “How could someone be so evil?”

“I don’t know Tapirmon, some people are just monsters,” Grant replied as a few tears fell from his tilted head onto his lap.

“Like us?” Yaamon asked innocently.

“Okay, give me a second,” Jamie broke in, holding up her digivice. “Let’s see if this will work. Yaamon digivolve.”

Yaamon digivolve to…Impmon!

Impmon appeared on the bed sitting on the edge. “Sorry about that, I’m just a bit immature as a Yaamon. That was a terribly sad story Grant, I feel very sorry for you.”

“Don’t. I don’t like people feeling bad for me. With how big my father was, and how terrible it was, the kidnapping and shootings were big news and tons of people found out quickly. They just pitied me so much, I couldn’t stand it. It all felt fake, they were treating me better because something happened to me. I just don’t like talking about it.”

“That’s okay.” Jamie walked over to his bed and sat down next to him, patting his back lightly. “If you need to cry, then cry. We’re your teammates and friends now, if you need a shoulder to cry on then you can use any of us.”

“But I don’t want to cry.” Grant wiped his face with his arm and stood up. “What I want is to kill the monster that did this to Blackgatomon and her village. I want to stop him before he can do this again. We won’t do that around here. We really should get going.”

“No, let’s stay around here. That Seraphimon should be returning soon and you heard him, he’s connected to the Sovereign.”

“Me too,” Jamie agreed. “Hey Grant, when you went out with the Mamemon yesterday-” Grant tensed up strangely at the mention of the three digimon “-you guys where gone for a while, did you see anywhere to eat?”

“You know it was only about a half hour, right? We just did the job, they paid me, I met up with you and Salamandemon, and we came back here. But now that you mention it, I didn’t eat anything yesterday either, so we’ve all gone a day without food.” Grant’s stomach growled loudly as if to confirm what he said. “Let’s go see if we can’t find something.”

()()()

“”Lucemon, where are you?” Seraphimon yelled. He had just reached back to the village and the fallen angel was nowhere in sight. “Lucemon!”

“I’m over here!” The demon’s voice answered from a few yards away, around a corner.

“Where? I don’t see you.” The angel looked around the corner the voice was coming from and saw an empty alley.

“There is a cloaking device, just walk forward.” Seraphimon followed the directions when his ears popped and a new sight appeared in front of him. There was an empty area surrounded by a large orange tent-the cloaking device- with about a dozen Digimon in it. In the center was Lucemon and the others were all small In-Training and Fresh level Digimon that surrounded him and a green Bucchiemon.

“What is this?” Seraphimon questioned as some of the In-Training and Fresh Digimon crowded around him. “I thought everyone was dead except for Blackgatomon?”

“This is the emergency bunker for the village,” Bucchiemon said in a deep, masculine voice. “When we detected a large demonic energy coming, we funneled all the young Digimon of the town in here along with me. The older ones either went out to battle the demon or evacuate. I haven’t been outside since the attack, but Lucemon has already explained what happened.”

“I am so sorry, sir. Do you have any idea who attacked the village?”

“No, just that they were very powerful and very evil.”

“How many Digimon do you have left to unseal?” Seraphimon aimed the question at Lucemon.

“I got through most of the village before finding this place, probably only enough to take another ten minutes or so. Why?”

“I’m going to take these survivors to the same village I took the Blackgatomon. Finish up around here and go report back to the sovereign.” Lucemon nodded as Seraphimon finished speaking and walked out of one side of the tent, disappearing from view. “Okay everyone, get on. I’ll take care of all these young ones and then come back for you Bucchiemon.”

“Okay. Everyone onto the Seraphimon.” Bucchiemon helped move the small Digimon into Seraphimon’s arms. “Are you sure you’ll be able to hold them all the whole way?”

“I should. I know the way to the village well actually since it’s where I grew up and I came to this village often when I was younger so it shouldn’t take too long.”

“Well no matter how well you know the way, are you sure you can deal with ten babies for that long?” Bucchiemon pushed back a Pagumon that started to crawl out of Seraphimon’s arms.

“Now that you mention it, not really. Here, I’ll leave a few here and take them along next time along with you. I’ll be back in about an hour.” Seraphimon set down a few of the In-Trainings before taking off, passing through the top of the tent.

()()()

“And that’s what happened with the Mamemon.” Grant hung his head in embarrassment as he finished the story. The four had found a small restaurant in the village owned by a Puppetmon and were waiting for their drinks, Impmon and Jamie finally getting Grant and Tapirmon to spill the beans about what happened the day before.

“I am so sorry for pushing you into telling that,” Jamie said apologetically. “I didn’t realize it would be so embarrassing.”

“It’s okay, you had no way of knowing. Other than me saying that it was embarrassing and I didn’t want to talk about it.” Grant replied, mumbling the second part.

“Here you go,” a flowery-lizard Digimon said walking up to the table holding a tray with four cups on it that she passed out. “Some milk for the young lady, unsweet tea for the young man, tomato juice for the Impmon, and mango juice for the Tapirmon. Enjoy!” She smiled sweetly as they started sipping their drinks.

“This is rather sweet for unsweet tea,” Grant noted, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

“And my milk is really sweet, too,” Jamie added.

“Really, my mango juice doesn’t-” Tapirmon was cut off as she fainted, the others following her.

Chapter 6. Seriously people, over 300 views, and one review (Which I dont count because I directly asked him to to see if others would follow his example.)

Helix 6: Game of Pain

“What’s going on, are you alright Neodevimon?”

“Y-yes, Envy, I’m fine. J-just some stomach pains. “

“Okay, if you’re sure. You know Neodevimon, I am just here to help you, it’s not like Lord Pride ever gives me any missions other than being your caretaker. If anything is going wrong, you can tell me and I’ll see if I can help you.”

“No, Envy, there’s nothing wro-ARGH!” He roared in pain as two glowing spots appeared on the virus-type’s chest-one black and one white. “The helixes! They split from my digicore! I-I can’t feel my-” He fainted mid-sentence as the two orbs of energy left his body, reverting him from his super-digivolution.

“Neodevimon! You!” Envy pointed at a ghost-like Bakemon that was passing through the room. “Go get the medics and Lord Pride, tell them it’s an emergency with Neodevimon.”

“Y-Yes ma’am!” The Bakemon rushed off quickly, hitting the wall next to the doorway on his way.

“Come on, don’t die on me Neodevimon.”

()()()

“Wake up, Digidestined!” A loud, screechy voice awoke the four. As they looked around, they realized what had happened.

“That Floramon drugged us!” Jamie shouted angrily. “She must be working with whoever we’re trying to take down! I can’t believe this, let’s break out of here. Impmon digivolve!” She reached for where her digivice was but felt nothing, looking down and then back up with an expression of shock and horror. “They took my digivice.”

“What?” Grant reached into his pocket before adopting the same expression. “Mine too.”

“The chief jailer is here to see you,” the screechy voice continued from the other side of the only door in the small room. “Stand up and show some respect.” The voce stopped for a few seconds before adding on another part. “And if you don’t show any respect, I have an electrified whip with all of your names on it forty times.” They all got up after hearing that little fact.

“Move you idiot, before I use that whip on you.” The voice was deep and emotionless. A moment later, the door was thrown open and a ghost-like Digimon flew into the room, slamming against the other side of the wall. “I said move!” The occupants of the room turned their attention from the flying ghost to the source of the voice-a tall white werewolf with blue stripes on his nose, head, and the tips of his long ears. One of his arms was still raised from throwing open the door and he used the other to fix a belt that hung up a pair of tight blue jeans he wore with knee covers-one of which was spiked, causing Impmon to swallow deeply when he noticed it. “I am the chief jailer, of course, Weregarurumon.” Weregarurumon cracked his knuckles, one set of which were covered in brass knuckles, to punctuate the point. Wrapped around the other hand was a familiar orange scarf.

“I’ll be asking the questions, got it kid? And it’s a really good scarf. Now then, are you all the digidestined? Yes, I knew it, you have humans, of course you are the digidestined! I am chief jailer Weregarurumon, got it? Of course, good! I have been sent by my lord, Sir Wrath, to take over this prison. Do you know how long ago that was? Three days, of course! And I have already taken control of it and you are now my prisoners, of course. But Lord Pride, master over Sir Wrath who is my master, told me to give you all one chance. You see, Lord Pride is one for fairness and always giving chances, of course.” The werewolf stopped talking for a minute, looking over the four.

“Lord Pride? Is he the one trying to take over the Digital World?” Grant questioned.

“I’ll be asking the questions, got it kid? And no, trying is too weak a word for it. Now then, that chance. You are not the only prisoners in this prison, of course, Lord Pride is one for justice, of course, and has ordered that everyone who goes against the New Order be imprisoned for impeding our justice, of course! Tomorrow, you will be taken to the Arena as a team. You Digimon will then have to fight another team of prisoners to the end, of course!”

“What do you mean the end?” Tapirmon asked cautiously.

“I’ll be asking the questions, got it kid? And I mean either you delete them or they delete you. If you win tomorrow I’ll return your digivices. Then, the next day you’ll have to battle some tougher prisoners, of course! If you win then I’ll give you all a prize, of course! And then a third day with even stronger enemies, of course! If you win then, the Lord has told me to release you.”

“So we have to win three times to leave? Seems rather doable,” Grant said with a small smile. “I guess it’s a good thing this Pride person is underestimating our strength.”

“No, you are underestimating the other prisoners, of course! Now goodbye, dinner will arrive soon. You should get your energy, or it won’t be satisfying watching you die tomorrow, of course! Come on Bakemon, before you become my dinner.” Weregarurumon walked out, whistling, while the Bakemon followed him out and closed the door.

“This is good,” Grant summed up.

“Good? We are stuck in a cell by the bad guys, have to fight to the death against other Digimon for three days in a row, and then they say they’ll release us but that doesn’t actually mean they will!” Jamie replied to the summary.

“And they stole my scarf!” Impmon angrily yelled.

“But you heard him,” Grant coolly responded, “it will be fair, so we have a good chance of winning. Plus, we learned a good bit. We now know that they call themselves the New Order, a bit cliché but not any less helpful, that the leader is named Lord Pride and that one of the higher-ups is called Sir Wrath. I also bet that if we ask that chief jailer some more questions, and can deal with him saying ‘I’ll be asking the questions, got it kid?’ we’ll be able to learn a bit more.”

“But what if we lose?” Tapirmon asked rhetorically. “Then we’ll get killed.”

“Let’s try not to think about that, we have to believe we will win if we want to win tomorrow. Just calm down and stop thinking about all the ‘what ifs’.”

()()()

“Bucchiemon, are you here?” Seraphimon landed in front of the healer’s building and walked in.

“Yes sir?” The fairy Digimon appeared behind a counter. “What do you need?”

“How is Blackgatomon doing? Also, do you think you could watch these babies for a while, I have to go back and get some more and their caretaker.” The baby Digimon jumped out of Seraphimon’s arms, not giving Bucchiemon much choice in the matter.

“Blackgatomon is suffering extreme PTSD and depression, but physically fine. I can watch them, but I must warn you that this won’t be cheap.”

“That’s okay, I’m backed by the Sovereign, no amount is too much. Take care.”

()()()

“Are you feeling better?” The figure was blurry and dark, but Neodevimon could recognize it well enough.

“A bit, Envy. What happened?”

“It seems that after your digicore settled the helixes separated from it, also taking chunks of your digicore with them. You almost died and lost your super digivolution, so I made Lord Pride promise not to do anything like it again.”

“Why? If we tried again I might adjust to it and be able to keep the form and its power.”

“No, Neodevimon, I am not letting you risk your life again. You are good enough as is. You don’t need to get anymore powerful if it also means your death.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, I live merely to get more power and obey the orders of Lord Pride.”

“And me, you have to obey my orders too; and I order you to take it easy. Your body was heavily taxed and I do not want you dying.”

“Fine, I’ll rest. But once I’m back to normal, I’m not going to stop trying to gain power.”

“I would expect nothing else, but for now you will only try and gain your health back.”

()()()

“Are you two ready?” Grant was pacing around the small waiting room for the arena. They had been there twenty minutes and one of the Bakemon guards had just told them that their first match was about to begin, meaning Impmon and Tapirmon would have to go into battle.

“I’m pumped, I can just feel that we’re going to win.” Impmon replied.

“And I don’t want to, but I am ready to fight,” Tapirmon added.

“Well this will be your first actual battles as Rookies and I wasn’t sure if you were ready. We need you at your top games today, or we are all dead.” Grant stopped pacing as the gate into the arena began to rise.

“I guess this means it’s time for you two to go out,” Jamie said. “Good luck.”

“Come on,” a Bakemon guard said. Two dead, blue arms reached out from under its sheet-like body and grabbed Impmon and Tapirmon’s arms, dragging them out onto the field. The two teens followed them out, taking seats on a bench right outside of the gate.

“Hello, I am chief jailer Weregarurumon, of course!” The wolf’s voice echoed throughout the brightly light arena. “Today, fighting for there lives, we have some special guests. The Digidestined, enemies of the New Order of course, have been captured and the Chosen Digimon are on the red side. On the blue side are the Bunny Twins, Terriermon and Lopmon, arrested and charged with attempting to impede New Order spread in the Mist Jungle.”

“What?!” Grant yelled in surprise. “They’re enemies of the New Order, too? We have to fight and kill Digimon on our side?”

“Them’s the breaks, kid, of course!” Weregarurumon responded, appearing behind the two. Grant let out a low-pitched scream and jumped off the bench in surprise. “Sheesh, no need for dramatics. Did you really think we’d have Digimon allied with the New Order in prison? Although, I wouldn’t suggest worrying about them, of course. The twins have been in custody of the New Order for quite a while now, most of the sanity is gone and they only live to survive and make sure the other survives. If you hold back any they will use that chance to kill you, of course. But you don’t need to know this, I’d tell your partners before they get killed.” The werewolf jumped up, disappearing somewhere into the crowd around the arena in the bleachers.

“I’m starting to feel worse and worse about this,” Jamie muttered. “Impmon, don’t hold back any. I hate to say it, but you need to kill them, if you don’t then they’ll kill us and we need to be alive.”

“I got ya,” Impmon nodded. “That goes for you too, Tapirmon. You’re a nice mon, but that will just kill us.”

The opposing gate opened, two similar looking Digimon walking out of it. Both were short, around two feet each, with round heads, long fat ears, and chubby bodies. They also both had horns, marks n their ears, and color like marks around their necks. One was white with green marking, one point on its collar marking, and a single horn. The other was brown with pink markings, a two-pointed collar mark, and three horns. They growled as they walked out.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Weregarurumon’s voice yelled again from somewhere in the room, “Get ready to fight.” The four fighters walked onto four red X’s painted on the ground in a square. “Get set. Fight, of course!”

“Summon!” Impmon started off the fight by summoning the two elemental orbs, a fire one and an ice one. “Night of Fire! Night of Blizzard!” He threw the two orbs in between the rabbits, which jumped to the sides and dodged the resulting elemental blasts.

“Blazing Ice!”
“Blazing Fire!” The twins responded with blasts of ice and fire pellets from their mouths.

“Nightmare Syndrome.” Tapirmon jumped in front of Impmon and released a blast of fog from her small trunk that surrounded the pellets and absorbed them. “Walking Dream.” The eye symbol on her face plate glew and she shot out a cloud of dark fog that surrounded the brown Lopmon. “I’m going to need help, Impmon. Without my holy ring I can’t do much.”

“I got ya covered. Machine Gun Kick!” Impmon jumped into the cloud, ready to kick Lopmon, but instead jumped back. “Not a good idea to jump into an attack. Let’s try this again, Machine Gun Kick!” this time, he jumped at the white Terriermon.

“Tiny Twister!” Terriermon started spinning rapidly as Impmon approached him, turning into a spinning blur after mere seconds. Impmon hit him, but was knocked back by the hit.

“Petit Twister!” Within the Walking Dream attack, Lopmon also started spinning rapidly, blowing away the fog.

“Double Typhoon!” The two twins spoke in unison, quickly moving towards each other. When they met, the two twisters combined to form a large wind cyclone. “Blazing Fire and Ice!” Large pellets of the two elements started shooting out of the large tornado.

“Nightmare Syndrome.” Tapirmon released another cloud of fog, but the blasts ripped through it and hit her, knocking her back harshly.

“Tapirmon!” Impmon shouted as he too was hit by the attack, knocking him down as well.

“No!” Jamie and Grant yelled slightly out of synch.

“Stop, of course! Winners of round 1 are the Rabbit Twins, of course!” Weregarurumon laughed as he finished the sentence. “Twenty minute break for recovery before round two begins.”

“What, round?” Impmon pushed himself up slowly.

“Of course!” Weregarurumon jumped from the crowd into the center of the arena. “All battles are fought in best out of three rounds. When a team reaches two round wins, they’ve won the battle, of course, and get to erase their enemies and live another day. You get twenty minutes to rest and talk until the next round starts. Although, with how quickly you went down, I doubt it would help much.”

“We can still win this,” Jamie replied. “There must be some way to win.”

“You know, girl, I like your spirit. Doesn’t mean I’ll help you, of course, but I like it.”

“Are you sure there’s nothing we can do to win?” Grant asked the werewolf.

“I ask the questions around here, got it kid? And you could always aim ranged moves at Terriermon and short-range moves at Lopmon, they are resistant to the other way around but go down rather quickly when dealt with right.” The ultimate Digimon seemed oblivious as he gave away the ‘secrets’.

“Nothing at all?” Jamie joined in. “Surely you could help us just a little? Isn’t there anything we could do?”

“I said, I ask the questions around here, got it kid? Although, it would probably be best to keep them separate so they can’t do their combination moves, of course.” Weregarurumon laughed like he hadn’t just helped out the heroes.

“Well that’s too bad. Did you here that, guys, there’s no way we can do win!” Grant called to their resting Digimon.

“Well then you know the obvious, of course! You’ve lost! And your break time is almost up, so plan quick. I must be going, of course.” He laughed once more before jumping back into the crowd.

“Well now we know something else,” Grant pointed out.

“Yeah, how to beat these guys,” Impmon said.

“Actually, I meant that Weregarurumon is an idiot and whoever put him in charge of this prison is obviously insane. We should really abuse this as much as we can.” A bell rang as Grant finished speaking.

“And that bell,” Weregarurumon called out, “means that it is time for round two, of course! So get fighting!”

“Come on,” Impmon signaled to Tapirmon. “You take Terriermon and I’ll take Lopmon.”

“Okay. Walking Dream.” The vaccine turned towards the white and green rabbit, the eye pattern on her face plate glowing bright yellow, and released a blast of dark fog at him.

“Tiny Twister!” Terriermon started spinning around quickly, but was unable to blow away the fog as it surrounded him, causing him to stop in place and fall over.

“Brother!” Lopmon shouted as Terriermon fell over.

“I hate to do this kid, but Machine Gun Kick!” Impmon snapped before jumping at the distracted Digimon, kicking him multiple times and knocking him over like his brother. “Weregarurumon was right, they did go down quickly.”

“And with that ends round two!” Weregarurumon called out. “The Rabbit Twins will be given twenty minutes to recover before the next and final round starts. But first, a special surprise. The prison is rewarding the rabbits something to help deal with those little defense problems they have, as presented by my assistant head jailer, Bakemon!” The ghost-like digimon from before slowly exited the gate on the Rabbit Twin’s side of the arena and approached the recovering Digimon.

“Here you go.” The two moved in front of the ghost, obscuring the reward from the Digidestined’s view.

“I wonder what it is.” Grant tried to make out what the ghost was handing the smaller digimon when they started glowing suddenly. “No way. Are they-?”

“Digivolving? I think so. That must have been spare data or something,” Jamie surmised. “This won’t be good.”

Terriermon digivolve to…
Lopmon digivolve to…

“Gargomon!” Terriermon grew to a four foot figure with long green ears that stuck out to the sides and were both a bit longer than his body. The top section of his head was green, including the singular horn in the middle of his forehead, except for a small red jewel that shone between his beady black eyes. The opposing Digimon swung down his arms as the glow surrounding them exploded into small white crystals, revealing machine guns attached to the ends of his arms over his hands. An ammo belt was slung around his body and he wore a pair of blue jeans.

“Turueimon!” Lopmon’s digivolved form was a bit taller than Gargomon and had a thinner, more proportional human-like shape. He was light brown with long ears like his brother. Instead of guns, he had two back-curved weapon gauntlets on his hands. The rabbit punched the air multiple times excitedly before fixing a blue bandana around his neck and the yellow fighting outfit he wore.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Weregarurumon yelled, excitement edging into his voice. “Welcome Gargomon and Turueimon, of course! Those handy, hah handy, machineguns of Gargomon’s will help shoot down any pesky ranged moves, of course! And Turueimon’s new Bunny-Ear Blades won’t be a major letdown either, helping knock back anyone who tries to go in for a physical hit, of course! And now, the break shall start, giving both sides twenty minutes to form a strategy.”

“This is not good.” Impmon kept staring back at the twins while he spoke. “Those digivolutions got rid of their weaknesses.”

“Well, the first time a Digimon digivolves naturally to a new level, they retain their previous power level for a little while,” Tapirmon offered, “which means that while they are bigger and have different moves, they will still be as strong as a Rookie for a while.”

“You guys could use that. This still probably won’t be an easy battle though. We need a strategy of some sort.”

“Hey, over here.” Bakemon’s screechy voice caught the attention of the four, causing them to turn towards their gate.

“What do you want?” Grant asked, suspicious.

“Weregarurumon’s overthrow,” Bakemon replied. “I can’t stand him and his abuse. I brought these.” The ghost’s dead, blue arms stretched out from under him and extended over to the teens, holding their digivices.

“You’re really turning on Weregarurumon?” Grant snatched his digivice and pressed one of the buttons on it.

“It’s working. He isn’t tricking us. So does this mean you are on our side?”

“No, not on your side, just helping you out to take down a mutual enemy. Also, take this.” Both of Bakemon’s arms quickly slid back into his body, making Jamie and Grant shiver out of disgust, and then one flicked back out quickly, tossing Tapirmon’s holy ring to her.

“Thank you.” Bakemon slid the ring around her arm as the virus slipped away.

“I think we have our strategy,” Grant said holding up his digivice and pointing it at Gargomon, Jamie following with Turueimon.

“But you sent all the others with other members of the New Order, why keep these two?”

“Because without these two, none of the others are usable. They would have to kill me to get these, and they would need these and all the other ones to even scratch me. It’s a vicious circle that ensures the Digidestined can do nothing to stop me.”

“Well that leaves only one other choice.”

“What are you talking about, Envy? Choice for what?”

“Neodevimon. He has no sense to keep himself alive. I ordered him to stay away from the helixes, but now that he knows they can give him power I fear he will not leave them and will try to use them again. He barely survived this time, I am not sure he can handle it again.”

“Since when are you so worried about Neodevimon?”

“Well, uh, I.” Her stuttering was cut off from a high-pitched laugh from Lord Pride.

“You don’t have to say anymore. I’ll give them to Wrath and have him do something special with them to make sure Neodevimon can’t get them. If I may ask, what was the other choice?”

“Well, it was to do a bit of tampering with his digicore and implant a…”

“Ready. Petit Twister!” The rabbit warrior put out his arms and started spinning rapidly.

“Tiny Twister!” Gargomon held out his gun-covered arms and followed suit. The two images blurred as their speeds increased and the crowd let out a gasp.

“What’s so surprising? They just used those moves?” Jamie asked.

“That’s what’s so surprising,” Impmon replied. “Most Digimon lose the ability to access moves from previous stages when they digivolve. This must be a part of that unknown data. Let’s hope this is all.”

“The chosen digimon won’t last long against this move once the rabbits pick up full momentum, of course!” The chief jailer’s voice was fast paced and excited before he started laughing insanely, which rather annoyed Impmon.

“I know the plan said wait until we had to to digivolve, but this looks like the time,” Impmon said to Jamie.

“Salamandemon!” The fiery amphibian let off a small blast of fire as he digivolved.

“Shimaunimon.” The horse stood shakily.

“How is this possible? I had your digivices confiscated, of course!” The crowd around the angry werewolf quickly shuffled away, leaving him and his ghost visible in the left side of the bleachers. “How did you get them back?”

“Ultimate Double Typhoon.” The unison voices of the Rabbit Twins took everyone’s attention. They were barely visible, appearing as just cyclones of green and yellow that rapidly spun towards each other and met after seconds. The resulting cyclone was larger than both of the two component ones put together, close to eleven feet, and was blowing up dust and other particles, including some smaller digimon in the lower rows.

“Well no matter how you got them, I’d like to see you survive this!”

“Supreme Cannon.” An unfamiliar voice called out calmly, a large blue energy blast coming out of nowhere and engulfing the twister. When it faded, nothing except a wisp of data was left. “Sorry my friends, but your mind had gone, this way at least you can move on and be healed. Up here.” The direction called everyone’s attention to a figure hanging from one of the multitude of lights hanging from the ceiling. It the kicked off the light downwards, flipping as it fell and landed perfectly upright. “Hello.”

“Hello daughter,” Clavisangemon greeted Ophanimon as he entered the room.

“Oh, hello sir, how are things going? Any news on the digidestined or Seraphimon?” She greeted back.

“Please, when you and Seraphimon got married I said call me dad, not sir,” he answered back, setting his key down against the wall. “And yes, I have plenty of news. But first, how is the reconstruction going?”

“Good, we were able to get everyone out of the debris quickly. Thankfully there were no child casualties, unless you count their senses of security. Not so thankfully, there were plenty of their parent’s casualties so we sent them to the nuns to take care of them. I heard that they have already gotten a third of them adopted.” She stood up from the chair she was sitting in. “So what news do you have about Seraphimon?”

“Him and Lucemon found a Bucchiemon and a whole bunch of Fresh and In-Trainings and took them to a small village. They also found a Blackgatomon from the village. They are set to transport them here in a few days.”

“And the digidestined?”

“Last word was that he ran into them leaving the village he was leaving the young Digimon in. They are also planning on bringing them back for finishing training. So, did you send him the news yet?”

“No, I wanted to tell him in person when he gets back from this mission. I’m so excited.”

“And so am I, I’ve been wanting to be a grandpa ever since you two got married. It’s just too bad his mother can’t be here to see it.”

“What ever did happen to her? Seraphimon’s never told me anything other than she’s dead.”

“I have no other duties today, I might as well tell you the story, and it really isn’t much. But please, sit down.” The Virtue Digimon motioned for Ophanimon to sit before taking a seat opposite her. “It was quite a bit ago now; I want to say thirty years. Me and her were both agents of the sovereign back then, travelling around and trying to recruit new members into the service. I believe Seraphimon, who was still a Patamon at the time, was staying with my cousin and her husband while the missus and I travelled. We were on a mission in the Boot Glacier, trying to talk to the local aquatic Digimon. We also had a Bluemeramon, Wizardmon, and a Myotismon with us as our allies on the mission, just to help with imagining it. At the time, we were talking to a small village of Penguinmon who had agreed to join us if we took out a Gigaseadramon that had been terrorizing them.

“We had been able to track down the beast easily, I mean it is a Gigaseadramon, they are very, very large. In the end, we had managed to take it down and get all the Penguinmon to join us, but it wasn’t a perfect fight. Gigaseadramon are powerful Megas fueled by the X-Antibody after all, and we were four Ultimates and a Champion. Wizardmon, Bluemeramon, and my wife were all casualties. I’ll tell you one thing, it felt good to dig Excalibur into the creature’s head. That was also when I digivolved to this form; Myotismon couldn’t take the X-Antibody and I wasn’t about to let that data go to waste after the hard battle.” A smile came to the archangel as he finished talking.

“Well, at least you survived but it is still sad most of your allies died.” Ophanimon frowned sadly at her father-in-law.

“You were a holy warrior, I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of allies die,” he replied. “I’d think you out of the two of us would know it better, sometimes allies fall in battle and all you can do is respect their memory. I say I did that by raising my son well, getting those Penguinmon back here with Myotismon, and staying loyal to the sovereign. Don’t you?”

“Yes, that sounds good. I usually did it by killing enemies of the sovereign, but I guess we all have our different ways. So how are you doing today, sir?”

Clavisangemon let out a sigh. “I said, you can call me-Oh, never mind, it’s fine. I’m doing well. A bit worried about the reconstruction and everything, but I’m doing well.”

“Sir, the sovereign require your help.” A Tapirmon appeared in the doorway of the room.

“Coming right away, sorry I couldn’t stay longer.” He grabbed his key and followed the Tapirmon away.

“It’s okay,” Ophanimon called after him. “Thanks for the talk.” After he was out of sight, she went back to her chair and sat back down. “I really need some friends to talk to. Maybe I’ll go to that coffee bar, I heard it’s great for making friends.”

()()()

“Welcome back boss,” the black-cloak clad old man greeted Lucemon as the fallen angel entered the room. Seven chairs sat in a circle within the room, six of them the same size and the seventh being larger, and a figure was in each except for the larger one, the two to its left, and the one on its right. In the two on the left floated balls of data with pictures in them. “How did the mission go?”

“Hello Barbamon,” Lucemon greeted back, pushing past the beak-nosed demon and walking over to the large chair and sitting in it. “The mission went well, we found close to a dozen survivors and neither me nor Seraphimon got injured. I trust that you kept everything well under control for the few days I was gone.”

“Except for the fact it was so boring,” one of the Digimon in another chair spoke up. Lucemon looked over to see the black-haired she-demon Lilithmon sitting boredly in her chair. “We didn’t get to do anything.”

“You don’t do anything when I’m in charge either,” Lucemon pointed out. “What could be so different when Barbamon is in charge?”

“Well firstly, he isn’t anywhere near as good to look at,” the Demon Lord of Lust said in her best seductress voice, which being a succubus she was very good at.

“You’re still not getting a higher seat number,” Lucemon replied flatly. “And stop that voice, it doesn’t work on me.”

“I hate you,” he replied angrily. “Seriously, I didn’t shout at you the last time you came in with a hangover.”

“Yes, you did actually,” Lucemon interrupted. “I still remember that argument and do not want it happening again.”

“Even I found it terrible, and I literally feed off of wrath and anger,” the last present Demon Lord spoke up. He was fully covered by a red cloak except for his blue hands and a small slit in his pointed hood which showed his blue eyes. White horns stuck out of the side of his head and purple wings came out of his back.

“Oh yes, Daemon, that reminds me. The Sovereign asked me to tell you to cut out the pranks.”

“But that’s the only way for me to get any food around this place,” Daemon complained before being cut off by a death glare from his superior. “I mean, okay sir, I’ll just get a normal diet or something.”

“That’s what I thought. Now then, I need some sleep, but first, do you two need anything?” The Demon Lord of Pride turned towards the two orbs floating to his left. The first one showed the image of a giant red crocodilian, Leviamon, Demon Lord of Envy, and the second showed a bulbous brown-furred sleeping creature with a multitude of small horns and two large one and an alarm clock attached to chains wrapped around it, Belphemon, Demon Lord of Sloth.

“Good. You can talk amongst yourselves or whatever, I’m taking a nap.” Lucemon stood up and started walking away before stopping. “And Lilithmon, if you touch me while I’m sleeping I’ll make sure you wish you were never brought back by the Sovereign.”

“Sheesh, boss, you don’t need to make threats; I’m not going to touch you.”

“Shut up!” Beelzemon yelled, turning over in his chair.

“And make sure Beelzemon stays out of the alcohol.” Lucemon sighed and then left to his room.

“Do you think he’d actually hurt me?” Lilithmon asked after he left.

“Yep,” Barbamon replied simply.

“Well then I need a drink, anyone want to come?” The Demon Lord of Lust offered.

Splash. Such a simple, quiet sound, but it meant she could finally relax. Lady Envy pushed herself up in the pool and rested against the side, thinking about everything that has happened. “This is just too much, I need a break.”

“Looks like you’ll be getting one, Envy,” Neodevimon said, appearing in front of Envy, floating over the pool.

“What do you mean, Neodevimon? Why would I be getting a break?”

“I’ve got a mission.”

“What is it? Are you sure I don’t need to come along? I’m really fine without that break.”

“I am an Ultimate, I don’t need your help with everything I do. And even if I did, it’s in the Processor Desert so you couldn’t help me anyways.”

“Oh, well still tell me what it is,” she insisted.

“A rebel movement is happening in one of our controlled areas and they’re sending me to deal with it. Nothing big.”

“But I just operated on your data earlier today and you were seriously injured yesterday, you are nowhere near your peak, are you sure you can do it?”

“Why are you so worried about me? No one else worries about me, and yet you worry.”

“It’s hard to explain, Neodevimon. I’m not sure you could understand until your new emotion core kicks in, and even then it doesn’t include all the emotions you would need to understand.”

“So it is an emotional thing? I do not know what it means, but thank you.” The three last words from the demon froze Envy in her place.

“Y-you’re welcome. And thank you.”

“For what?” Neodevimon asked, confused.

“Nothing in particular, just thank you. Here, the water feels great, come on in.”

“Well then.” She reached out and grabbed his wrist before tugging hard, making him lose his balance and falling in.

“Agh! What was that for?” Neodevimon yelled, pushing himself to the surface.

“I thought it would be funny and help you see why you don’t like water. So did you?”

“Yeah, it burns my nose.”

“You have a nose?” The new demon lord scanned the demon’s mask, but couldn’t make out any bump or anything for a nose.

“It’s under the mask,” he said, noticing her scanning gaze.

“You have something under there? I mean, I practically made your current form and even I didn’t know that. Is there anything else I didn’t know about you?”

“Probably plenty, but I don’t know what you do know about me. What do you want to know?”

“Hmm…Let’s start with something simple. How do you feel about your position?” The floating Digimon questioned Neodevimon, who had taken a position opposite her in the pool.

“As an agent of the New Order who does missions and carries out assassinations? I don’t mind it, it can be rather exciting at times and all. I think it’s only fair if you answer one of my questions now.”

“Okay, what do you want to know about me?”

“Same question, how do you feel about your position here?”

“I can’t complain. I get respect, power, and friends without having to fight and delete others. In fact, other than Lord Pride, I think I have it best here. Next question; do you have any goals in life?”

“I guess one day I’d like to become one of you demon lords, as that would demand respect from everyone. You?” The two kept going like this for a while before deciding it was getting late and went off to their rooms, having learned a lot about each other.

()()()

“Okay Greed, it’s been a week since we made the bet and they haven’t hooked up yet, so you’ve lost the bet. Turn in your bet now so we can make sure you have it.”

“Fine Lust, here’s 500 bits. I can’t believe Envy’s been this shy about it, even an idiot could see that she likes Neodevimon.”

“I can believe it,” Lust replied. “She isn’t shy, even around Neodevimon, but she doesn’t seem like the kind to make a move. Although if you can see it, I guess you’re right about that idiot can see it thing.”

“Hilarious!” Another one of the four gathered new demon lords said with a laugh.

“Please shut up Sloth, I’ve got a massive headache.” The last one spoke up annoyed.

“Seriously Gluttony, you’ve been drinking again? I thought you were going to cut back so that you didn’t get hangovers.” Lust sighed.

“I will, but I was bored last night so I went out and started wandering around one of the towns we controlled and things kinda spread from there. Now can everyone be quiet?”

“I don’t even see any reason to stay here and I’ve paid you, so I’m going.” Greed got up and left the room, Sloth following without saying anything.

“I’ll go too, make sure to turn off the light when you leave Gluttony,” Lust said to her fellow new demon lord as she left the room.

“I will. Maybe, if I feel like it. Be quiet.” He put his head down and fell asleep right at the table.

You're telling an interesting sort of story, it seems, though I can't be more definitive because I'm not sure what's going on half the time. A large majority of your writing is exposition-dialogue, which is characters talking for the sake of giving information. It can be accomplished in narration instead, whereas in dialogue comes off as very robotic and unauthentic.

Additionally, most of the story is, in fact, dialogue without any sort of grounding elements. It's chunks and chunks of back-and-forth speaking without any kind of descriptions or actions in between. I don't know what the characters really look like, what they do, or how they're even oriented. Are they standing around? Seated at a table? Floating in space? Doing handstands? Yes, extreme examples, but without grounding action and an introspective voice it reads like a teleprompter.

Going back to the idea of an introspective voice (the part of the story that portrays the thoughts, actions, and emotions of the character)...I can only really say that you mostly lack it. There's some when it comes to Lord Lust or Pride...but barely. And there's a little bit with the demons, but there's nothing at all with the human characters. There's no differentiating style to them. They all sound about the same. And they sound rather flat. Just blurs speaking dialogue to one another. I don't know how they feel or think, which is a key part of getting readers to like and understand the characters.

I get where you're coming from Kamotz about the exposition-heavy dialog. And I get that it can be rather odd, but remember, a lot of it is also for the characters and not just for the reader. Narration is better, but I can't pull it off well and it won't help to tell the reader something you aren't telling the characters in that scene. I also understand the whole, too much dialog, not enough description thing, in fact in not today's chapter but the next one (I wrote far ahead, which can be kind of troublesome as it irritates me to go back and fix them up after I finish them) I practiced it and made an entire scene without a bit of dialog. I also get the characterization problem, I've always had difficulty with that. I wasn't sure how else to handle it, so I actually made a list of some characteristics of each character I plan to develop into them over the next few chapters. Hopefully I can develop them into actual characters instead of objects that stand there and pass around dialog. Thank you for your review.

But today is still Saturday, so I will update. I actually attempted to give some development to the characters (Well, Digimon characters, as Humans aren't very important in this one) here, and hope it at least gives some.

Helix 8: Back to the Show

“Up here.” The direction called everyone’s attention to a figure hanging from one of the multitude of lights hanging from the ceiling. It the kicked off the light downwards, flipping as it fell and landed perfectly upright. “Hello.”

“Sir Wrath! But that would mean-” Salamandemon’s face twisted in shock as the realization hit him.

“You are one of the leaders of the New Order,” Jamie finished.

“Leaders? It seems you are grossly under informed.” Sir Wrath, who had crouched onto his knees when he landed, stood up straight, giving the room a clear view of the tall skinny humanoid. His core body was pure black, but he wore odd white armor that was segmented. A large white horn and two smaller golden ones stuck out of the top of his armored head and a white cape with a red inside attached to his upper back. Instead of arms, the holy knight had two head-shaped attachments, his left being an orange, tri-horned dragon head, and his right was a blue wolf’s head. “We have only one leader, the great Lord Pride. I am merely one of his generals.”

“I think that still counts as a leader,” Grant stated. “You still have control, don’t you?”

“I do, so I guess I am a leader.” Omnimon started insanely, causing everyone else in the arena, including the audience and Weregarurumon, to back up.

“I knew I was right about whoever putting Weregarurumon in charge of this place being insane,” Grant sighed.

“Is there a single sane Digimon in this place other than us?” Salamandemon said, hanging his head down. “First that Weregarurumon and his ‘of course’ obsession-”

“I do not say it that much, of course!” The chief jailer complained from the bleachers, being ignored by everyone else.

“And now an evil holy knight who laughs like a maniac. Can’t we just come across one enemy who isn’t insane?”

“Who are you again?” The ghost hung his head in defeat at the small demon’s joke.

“Oh, sorry, sometimes I just lose myself,” Sir Wrath said, regaining his composure with a cough. “I actually came here to carry out some staff changes, so you kids don’t worry yourselves.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Grant yelled. “You have your enemies and, guessing from the fact we’re part of a prophecy, the only ones who can take down you and your allies, and you are stronger than us, so why not just kill us?”

“Well why would I kill you? As you said, I am stronger than you, far stronger even. Against two champions and two human teenagers I would take about two seconds. It just wouldn’t be honorable. Now then, for those staff changes!” Sir Wrath clapped his hands, or more hit his arms together softly as he didn’t have actual hands, and jumped over the digidestined to stand in front of Weregarurumon.

“Wh-what is it sir?” the werewolf asked, shaking from fear.

“You’ve been demoted, Chief Jailer Weregarurumon. No personal offense, it is not that you are unqualified for this position, but Jailer Captain Miragegaogamon believes he has found someone better for the position.”

“Wh-what? Who is it s-sir?” Weregarurumon tripped over the words, anger and fear both heavily present in his voice.

“You assistant, Bakemon.” Omnimon finished the sentence simply, causing a variety of responses. Bakemon froze in place from shock, Weregarurumon turned towards his former-assistant-now-boss with a death glare that could’ve actually killed someone, Tapirmon gasped in shock at the ghost being thought of as better to run a prison, and the other three chosen yawned boredly.

“You! You’re stealing my job!” Weregarurumon pounced at Bakemon but was cut off by a large sword that emerged from Omnimon’s dragon arm.

“Now calm down Assistant Head Jailer Weregarurumon, he isn’t stealing your job, more getting it as a gift because he’s better suited for it.” The holy knight’s reassurance only angered the beast man even more. After an angry undistinguishable babble, the assistant head jailer grabbed the top of the sword and used it to push on and send himself flying at Bakemon. “Stop!”

“Wha-?” Weregarurumon turned his head to look at Sir Wrath, losing focus of his jump and slamming into the ground. The injured ultimate let out a howl of pain before standing up slowly. “I-I’m sorry, kinda lost my cool there.”

“Oh yes, I couldn’t forget that, but someone went murderous on me.” Omnimon shot a glare at Weregarurumon. “Both of you get over here, and no killing each other.” The two followed his order with minimal hesitation. “Energy transfer.” He tapped his sword on the shoulder of Weregarurumon and then Bakemon. Both Digimon glew with a bright light and grew. Weregarurumon had become a large white wolf with blue stripes that was a few feet longer than he was tall in his previous form and a couple feet shorter. Bakemon had only grown about half a foot, but was covered in a grey cloak and a red hooded cape. The ghost’s face was totally obscured except for two blue slits of eyes and a gold necklace hung around his neck with an eyeball attached to it; the head jailer was also carrying a golden scythe that was bigger than he was with a chain attached near the bottom with a small metal ball on it that had a decoration similar to the one on Tapirmon’s head.

“N-no, I dedigivolved!” Garurumon howled, almost literally as he broke into a full howl as he finished.

“But I digivolved! The power, I can feel it flow through me, thank you Sir,” Phantomon thanked Sir Wrath.

“Don’t thank me, it was my pleasure to help someone for our cause. Although, I also have something else that Lord Pride told me to give you to do with as you please.” Omnimon grabbed his cape with his wolf head and pulled it around him. When he let it go a few seconds later, two glowing object floated in front of him, one black and one white-two helixes.

“The helixes!” Grant yelled as he saw the two orbs of energy.

“Oh yes, you are still here, and I guess you want these.” Phantomon grabbed the two helixes, his scythe disappearing in a puff of black smoke as he let go off it, and held them out. “I think I know what to do with them. If you chosen ones win your match tomorrow, I’ll give you these helixes.”

“I’m not sure Lord pride would care much for you wagering them, especially to the chosen ones, but he did say to tell you that you can do anything you want with them. And now, I must be off. Good luck and farewell.” Omnimon jumped upwards, clinging to one of the lights as he reached the ceiling, before disappearing.

“I feel amazing!” Phantomon yelled in a manner more fitting to a teenage girl who made it onto the cheer team than a head jailer. “Guards, take the digidestined back to their cell and get them some lunch, they deserve it. I have some matters to attend to, come on assistant head jailer Garurumon.” The delight in his voice as he said the last four words was impossible to miss.

()()()

“I say things are going good,” Grant said as they settled in their room, each of them getting a bowl of hot soup and a piece of bread from the jailers. “Phantomon will probably be easier to deal with than Weregarurumon, we have our digivices back, and we will get some helixes tomorrow.”

“But they never gave back my scarf!” Impmon, who dedigivolved on the way back to the room along with Shimaunimon, complained loudly.

“Oh yeah, they must have forgotten,” Jamie told her partner. “It’s probably still wrapped around Garurumon’s paw or something.”

“I just hope none of them are messing it up. What’s eating you, Tapirmon?” Impmon questioned the mammalian Digimon who was just sitting and staring into her soup.

“Nothing, I’m just wondering if we really can take down the New Order. It seems like they are too many steps ahead of us to catch up with.”

“Then I guess we’ll just have to run and catch up quickly!” Grant said motivationally. “I think I have this motivation thing down.”

“Maybe, but there is no guarantee we can catch up,” Tapirmon replied.

“You shouldn’t be so down,” Jamie said. “We were chosen by a prophecy to deal with this, after all.”

“But we didn’t hear the whole thing, maybe it has a vague ending or something. Maybe we’re supposed to sacrifice ourselves and we’ll die no matter what. Maybe, the prophecy was just wrong even if it does say we will win. Until the end we never no what can happen or who will die.” The other three gave Tapirmon worried looks as she talked.

“You really should think brighter, partner,” Grant said after a few moments. “We really need to think positive to do positive. Always look on the brighter side of things and all. W can achieve whatever we put our minds to.”

“I know, but it just seems so uncertain.” The beast’s comments reminded everyone about the fact that the outcome of their mission was uncertain, and they were behind and knew barely anything. For the first time since they entered the Digital World, they were all truly scared and worried.

()()()

“I still can’t believe this! This is madness, of course!” Assistant Head Jailer Garurumon growled under his breath as he stalked through the prison. The angered wolf moved along from cell to cell, casting frightening glares at the inmate held within. “Can you believe it, them making me an assistant and that pathetic ghost the head jailer?” The question had no specific target, and everyone in the jail knew well enough to not answer it. “That fool doesn’t know how to handle a prison or prisoners, of course! He has no clue about torture and punishment!”

“Maybe that’s why they chose me to take over. You know the bosses don’t like unneeded violence.” His voice deepened considerably after he digivolved, but Garurumon recognized the voice of the Digimon that took his job.

“Oh, hello Chief Jailer Phantomon.” The beast Digimon turned around to face the virus. “Good day, great battle this morning, of course. Wouldn’t you say?”

“I didn’t care much for it,” Phantomon replied. “I was more interested in Sir Wrath and the changes in employment around here. It seems that you certainly care about it. Do you have any complaints you want me to pass onto Sir Wrath or Jailer Head Miragegaogamon? I’m sure they’d love to hear them, or not, who knows?”

“No, no problems, of course. Why would I have any problems?” Venom dripped from the words.

“That’s what I thought. Let’s keep it that way, shall we? I’ll see you tonight.” The red and grey ghost floated off, leaving a still angry Garurumon standing in the hall.

“I just want to tear that worthless pile of waste data apart.” He turned around and walked off in the opposite direction.

()()()

“Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and anything of undeterminable gender!” Phantomon greeted the newly gathered crowd in the arena. The previous day had passed quickly after Sir Wrath left and it was time for the chosen ones’ second battle. “Today will be the second battle for the Chosen Digimon. On the line for the match are six very important things; their lives, their partners’ lives, and two very powerful Helixes. If they lose, however, all those shall be lost along with the match. Their competitors today are two of our elite guards, Gladimon and Darktyrannomon.” When Phantomon finished, the arena gate opposite the chosen opened up and a short figure walked out. It was only about three feet tall and rather round. The Digimon looked like a small suit of armor with a leather breastplate on, a metal skirt, and long spindly arms. In each of its hands were long, thin swords and he had an orange plume on his top.

“Sorry boss,” a deep voice boomed. “I had to go handle a prisoner really quick.” A black, leaned over shape came out of the gate. Once fully emerged, it stood up straight and showed its tyrannosaurus shape and white belly. As it stood up, the Darktyrannomon swung its large cloth-wrapped hands and the two large, sharp claws attached to each. It let out a roar from its giant maw and stared at the chosen Digimon. “I’m here.”

“Finally, and these two guards are not any normal Digimon, they have special experimental data from the New Order’s scientific branch. The rabbit twins yesterday also had this special data, but only showed it off for a few minutes at the end of the battle and my predecessor-”Garurumon growled angrily at this comment from Phantomon-“didn’t explain it. They are injected with special retainer data which allows them to use any move they had accessible in past digivolutions, but scaled up to their level. Now then, the battle is about to begin, but for the sake of fairness I will allow the digidestined to digivolve their partners.”

“Thank you head jailer,” Grant thanked the head jailer. “Tapirmon digivolve!”

“And you too, Impmon digivolve!” Jamie added.

Tapirmon digivolve to…Shimaunimon.
Impmon digivolve to…Salamandemon!

“And now that that is done, battle begin!” the Head Jailer signaled. The four Digimon in the arena stared at each other, waiting for the other side to make a move. “And it seems that none of the battlers want to make the first move. There must be a strategy of some sort going on here.”

“Or they’re just a bunch of wimps, of course!” Assistant Head Jailer Garurumon angrily shouted.

“Blaze Blast!” “Fire Blast!” The two viral battlers each shot a fireball at the wolf, who jumped out of the way before they got near him.

“Coordinated wimps. Attack your opponent not me, of course.”

“Wild Thunder.” “Thunder Kote.” Shimaunimon shot a lightning blast at Garurumon while Gladimon held up one of his swords which crackled with electricity before shooting a lightning blast of his own. The wolf dodged again, mocking the Digimon as he landed.

“And it seems like instead of going at each other’s throats, the battlers are going after a far more annoying target,” Phantomon narrated. “But I must ask that they stop it.”

“Why?” Salamandemon yelled at the ghost.

“Yeah, he started it,” Darktyrannomon pointed out.

“I don’t much want to, mainly because it is just too obvious my assistant wants me dead, but I don’t think my bosses would like it if I let you kill him.” The viruses sighed in disappointment and turned towards each other.

“Well let’s get this started, good luck,” Salamandemon called to his opponents.

“Mirage Dancer.” “Blaze Blast!” Shimaunimon disappeared again and reappeared in her original spot. Salamandemon tried to send another fire blast to stop the projectile Digimon, but Gladimon’s swords cut through the fireball and made it disappear into a stream of data before he could hit it. The Digimon of Darkness tried to move out of the way, but his slow pace and the warrior’s fast speed stopped him from dodging in time and the round Digimon’s swords struck him.

“Bull’s-eye.” Gladimon cheered quietly, pulling back to his side of the battlefield before the injured amphibian could counterattack. “Howling Blow.” The elite guard released a high-pitched blast at the chosen Digimon.

“Mirage Dancer.” Shimaunimon tried to dodge again, but the sound wave was too spread out and she couldn’t get away from it. Shimaunimon reared up in pain and let out a pained cry as the move forced her to stop. Salamandemon didn’t even make a sound as he recoiled.

“Claw Smash!” Darktyrannomon slammed his claws into the ground between the still pained Digimon, releasing a blast of dust and causing a miniature tremor.

“I can’t handle this anymore!” Salamandemon yelled in pain before dedigivolving into Impmon and fainting.

“Impmon!” Jamie shouted, getting up from the bench she and Grant were sharing and running to her partner.

“Sorry little girl, but I’m not done!” Darktyrannomon said, pulling back his arm and swinging it forward again.

“Stop!” Darktyrannomon’s arm was stopped by a furious Phantomon, the head jailer’s scythe holding back the humongous appendage. “I told you, this is supposed to be a fair fight! No attacking humans or defeated Digimon! Break my rules again and I will personally erase you, and don’t think I will hold back a single bit of energy!”

“S-sorry.” The viral dinosaur was absolutely terrified, as was everyone else in the arena, including a stunned Garurumon.

“Good.” Phantomon dropped the scythe, which disappeared into a puff of black smoke as it hit the ground, and floated down to Jamie who had now picked up her partner. “Please get back to your seat quickly so that the match can resume.” The teen merely shook her head and ran back to the bench and sat down. “Good, now then,” Phantomon had reclaimed his position in a now empty part of the bleachers and spoke calmly. “Resume.”

“Striped Blaster.” Shimaunimon took advantage of Darktyrannomon freezing in fear and shot a black and white energy blast at him, nailing the dinosaur in his jaw and knocking him over. “Mirage Dancer.” The zebra Digimon disappeared once more and appeared in front of a still shocked Gladimon. “Wild Thunder.” The blast was too much for the warrior and sent him blasting backwards into a wall.

“The winner of round one in the chosen digimon.” Phantomon announced. “Both sides will be given a half hour to rest and form a strategy before the next round.”

“But I’m not done,” Darktyrannomon complained as he pushed himself up. “I just took one hit and got knocked over, not out.”

“Same with me,” Gladimon added as he stood up. “It was just one attack, I’m still fine.”

“Well then you can spend more time strategizing and less resting then, I guess.”

“Something fishy is going on here,” Garurumon growled. “You are being far too kind to the enemy and harsh on our people.”

“You are just paranoid, I’m being fair not kind or harsh.” Phantomon replied, turning his back on the wolf. “Or maybe I am and you just have it backwards, you shouldn’t jump to conclusions assistant head jailer.”

“I know there is something wrong here, Phantomon, and I will get to the bottom of it.” Garurumon stalked off angrily as Phantomon just floated in place without a word.

“Round two shall now begin. But first, as with the first round, I will allow the chosen Digimon a chance to digivolve. Also, I will say this, breaking any rule will result in instant and full erasure of everyone on your team. Go.”

Impmon digivolve to…Salamandemon!

“We won’t be so easily beaten this time,” Darktyrannomon announced as he took his spot in the arena.

“You won’t have any way to surprise attack us this time,” Gladimon added on in his quiet voice.

“We don’t need to, we’ve seen what you can do and have a plan,” Salamandemon replied.

“Plan? Ha, you think we don’t have one? We only lost the first round because I got caught up in the battle too much, we can easily wipe the floor with you this time,” the giant black dinosaur replied with a deep laugh which his partner accompanied with a quieter, higher-pitched one.

“Let’s just hurry this up,” Shimaunimon replied, although none of the other Digimon heard her very quiet tone.

“You got first attack last time, so I’ll go,” Salamandemon called out. “Blaze Blast!” He created another fireball and shot it at Darktyrannomon.

“Claw Smash!” The dinosaur smashed his claw into the fireball, destroying it with ease and without feeling a thing. “I am made to handle fire, you’ll need to get a whole lot hotter than that to get past my skin.”

“It seems you don’t learn, Thunder Kote.” Gladimon held up his swords and absorbed the bolt into them as he did last battle and shot it back.

“Or maybe I do, Wild Thunder.” Shimaunimon stuck out her horn and absorbed the reflected thunder bolt and shot it back, even stronger.

“But not good enough, Thunder Kote.” Yet again, the warrior Digimon held up his swords and returned the blast of electricity.

While the two continued the volley, their partners were continuing their battling. “Claw Smash!” Darktyrannomon swung his arm downwards at Salamandemon who replied with a Back Draft that made him retreat his arm. “Now that’s heat, but it still won’t do you any good.”

“We’ll see about that. Blaze-“

“Thunder Kote.” Gladimon turned towards Salamandemon as he received the giant thunder blast and launched it at the amphibian, cutting him off before he could finish his attack.

“What? NO!” Salamandemon managed to stay standing after the blast, but froze in place. “What’s happening? I can’t move.”

“The electricity must have tightened your muscles,” Grant called out.

“Here, Anti-Freeze.”The Digimon of Light turned her horn to her partner and shot a beam of white light at him.

“Thanks,” Salamandemon said as he stretched. “And now, some payback, Blaze Blast!” He shot a fireball at Gladimon.

“Powder Blow.”

“Wild Thunder.” As Gladimon released the metal powder to put out the fireball, Shimaunimon countered with a thunder bolt that spread through the metal and into the small Digimon. Seconds later, the Blaze Blast ripped through the unfinished powder and struck Gladimon head on, throwing him against the wall.

“Too good,” Gladimon groaned before falling over.

“Looks like it’s up to me. Claw Smash.” Darktyrannomon slammed his hand down once more, this time grabbing Salamandemon and picking the Digimon of Darkness up. “Claw Uppercut.” The elite guard threw the amphibian upwards and then truck him with his other hand. “Iron Tail.” The dinosaur’s tail swung into Salamandemon’s falling form fast and hard, smashing him to the ground.

“Salamandemon,” Shimaunimon let out worriedly.

“I’m still fine. Blaze Blast.” Salamandemon said weakly, letting out a small fireball that made it halfway to Darktyrannomon before fading. “Ugh, I’m not fine.” He glew and shrunk back into a heavily injured Impmon. “This is not good.”

“Impmon, are you sure you can still fight?” Jamie called to her partner.

“No, but I’m not giving up.”

“How brave, but not for long, Claw Smash!”

“Shima Corn Thrust.” Shimaunimon caught the attack with her horn, stabbing into the dinosaur’s hand and stopping him. “Striped Blaster.” The phantom beast’s horn glew with a bright light and Darktyrannomon let out a roar of pain as the multi-colored blast ripped out of his shoulder. “Wild Thunder.”

“No!” The response silenced the arena as Shimaunimon raised her voice for the first time. “I will not let you get away with attacking my friends!”

“Stop this instant!” Phantomon yelled out. “The elite guards are too important to delete. Victory for this round belongs to the Chosen Digimon and they will be awarded the helixes. For now, please pull your horn out of Darktyrannomon.”

“O-okay,” Shimaunimon said as she unsteadily pulled her horn out of the dinosaur’s hand and fell over, dedigivolving into Tapirmon.

“Tapirmon, what happened out there?” Grant asked his partner as he picked her up off the ground.

“I don’t know,” she replied confused. “I saw him about to hit Impmon and my body just kinda went into auto-pilot and I lost control.”

“I must say, I didn’t know you had it in ya,” Impmon told Tapirmon as he walked over, Jamie supporting him with a hand under his arm. “That was some serious stuff there, you messed his arm up something nasty and almost deleted him. Thanks for covering me, by the way.”

“Oh, uh, you’re welcome. I didn’t know I had it in me either.”

“Digidestined,” Phantomon’s calm voice said, catching their attention. The head jailer floated down to the four, the two helixes floating around him and Garurumon jumping down the bleachers after him. “I am a man of my word, so here are your prizes, the helixes.”

“Which you don’t deserve, of course, and that Phantomon shouldn’t be giving them away, of course,” the assistant head jailer added.

“Hush, Garurumon,” Phantomon spat at the wolf before returning to his calm demeanor. “You don’t deserve your position, but you still got that. Now then, Digidestined, just hold up your digivices and they will absorb the helixes for your use in the future, if you have one that is. Tomorrow is your third and last battle; winning means you get to walk out of here free, while losing means your death. Good luck.”

“Thank you,” Grant adapted a calmness equal to the reaper’s as he held up his digivice and it attracted then pulled in the black helix floating around him.

“And we will win tomorrow,” Jamie added, also holding up her digivice to take in the white helix.

“We will see digidestined, we will see. For now, you are going to be escorted back to your cell. Prepare yourselves. Guards, take them away.”

()()()

Thump. Thump. Thump. Impmon’s weak punches made the small sound as his fists rebounded off of the cell wall. He had started when they first entered the cell after the battle and none of the others questioned it at first. But at first he seemed ecstatic and his punches were stronger, they probably just thought he was training or something for the next battle. Now, after two hours of it, he was weakening. His legs and feet had fallen asleep and it hurt to move them, so he just stood in the one spot silently punching the wall. After two hours, his hands were bruised and painful, although his orange gloves covered any injuries from the sight of others. Tears started to well up in his eyes, but the others probably just thought that punching a wall for two hours was getting to him and he’d stop when it got too painful. They were talking, but his broken pride blocked the sounds. Finally, data leaked off his clenched fists in small streams and he had to stop.

The virus broke down. The pain of standing was greater than the pain of moving his legs, so he fell to his knees and hit his hands to the ground lightly. He was useless, just there to last a few minutes in battle. The data streams stopped on his hands, but the pain just grew more intense as he sat there. He had been beaten in both of the rounds, while Shimaunimon took out the enemies in both of them. His willpower completely broke and the tears he was holding back started running. He almost got deleted and was barely saved both times, he even almost took Jamie with him the first time. The other three worriedly ran over to him and tried to talk to him, but he still couldn’t hear their words. Useless, useless, useless, that was all he was. His partner tried to shake his shoulders and pull him up, but he refused to budge. He beat his head on the ground weakly. Thump. Thump. Thump.

()()()

“There must be something here.” Garurumon searched the head jailer’s office, his lack of hands giving him some difficulty. “This would’ve been so much easier if I still had hands. That fool is fishy, there must be something here to prove so.”

“You mean other than your paranoia?” Garurumon turned around gingerly, knowing full well the voice was Phantomon. “For the last time, there is nothing strange about me, you just hate the fact I was given your position.”

“Or maybe I’m right and you’re just saying that to try and drive me off your track.”

“You should really work on your arguing,” the head jailer said with a sigh. “Just saying the negative of what I say won’t win you the argument. However, my soul chopper may win me it if you keep overstepping your boundaries.”

“Fine, you win, for now,” Garurumon gave up as Phantomon summoned his scythe. The beast left the office, leaving his superior alone.

“This place is a mess.” Phantomon sighed again as he let go of his scythe and let it disappear. “I’ll clean it up later. I’ll need to do something about Garurumon, his suspicions are annoying me and I’m not sure how much longer I can take it.”

“Sir.” Phantomon turned around when he heard the light voice. Gladimon was standing there saluting.

“Oh, hello Gladimon. Sorry for the mess, but Garurumon is still suspicious and angry and searched the room. What is it?”

“I have a message for you.” The small knight held out an envelope that Phantomon took and opened. “What does it say?”

“Nothing.”

“You don’t need to hide anything from me, what does it say?”

“It really doesn’t say anything.” Phantomon turned around the letter and showed Gladimon that it was indeed blank.

“I wonder what it means. Maybe it is invisible ink and we need to put it against a fire to read it,” the warrior Digimon offered.

“Maybe, but I don’t have any fire or anything.”

“Here, Hot Head.” Gladimon let out a small fireball that went out a few inches from hitting the letter. “Anything now?”

“Nope, not a thing. It must be important so I’ll just keep this on me, but let’s forget this for now.”Phantomon tucked the paper into a fold of his cloak and it disappeared. “How is Darktyrannomon doing?”

“Badly. The Shimaunimon’s attack went through the middle of his arm’s bones and his shoulder blade, causing rather severe damage to them along with destroying some tendon connections to the bones. The medics aren’t sure they can fix it and he may lose most control of his arm if not total loss.”

“Well that’s a horrible loss and I wish we didn’t have to have it, but at least now we’ve had a chance to see the Digimon of Light at her full power. The plan moves to the next step tomorrow and will hopefully finish by the afternoon, but with Darktyrannomon incapacitated things are going to be a bit difficult, get plenty of rest tonight and be at your peak tomorrow.”

“Okay sir, you too,” Gladimon replied before leaving the office.

“Now what plan would this be?” Garurumon asked, slinking back into the room once Gladimon was gone.

“You really shouldn’t eavesdrop, assistant.” Phantomon’s voice was filled with pure annoyance now and he desired nothing more than to be left alone. “The plan is none of your business, it is between me and elite guards Gladimon and Darktyrannomon.”

“Well Darktyrannomon is out of the plan whatever it may be, of course, and Gladimon is too small for any real good. You could use a new member in on this plan, can’t you?”

“Not at all, Darktyrannomon is still capable with just one arm and Gladimon has more than proven himself. Besides, why would I want my traitorous assistant in on my secrets?”

“You sure seem set on me being traitorous without any actual proof after how you acted to my accusation earlier.”

“No proof? You kept mumbling about how much you hate me, if that isn’t proof you would betray me I don’t know what is. And besides,” Phantomon held out his arm and his scythe appeared in it, “are you sure you want to argue against this.”

“You and that stupid scythe. Fine, you win, I’ll stay out of your plans, but I will keep my eye on you.”

“You act like I’m actually threatened. Now get going, I have some paper work I need to do in private,” Phantomon shooed away the wolf. “What a bother he is, I should see if I can get him replaced with Gladimon.”

()()()

Achoo! Gladimon sneezed suddenly as he was walking through one of the prison’s many corridors, the one leading to the chosen ones’ cell actually. Another followed quickly and then another after he strolled a few more feet. “I better not be catching a bug or something,” he mumbled to himself as he continued walking. “What the Dark Zone is that sound?” A light sobbing entered the hallway from one of the nearby rooms, but which one was hard to pinpoint. “Is someone crying? Better go see if any of the prisoners have finally snapped.” He walked to the nearest cell door and placed a hand on it, pushing it open.

“What do you want this time?” A light voice from inside the cell asked. “I told you already Garurumon that I won’t join in your plans.”

“Plans? What plans?” Gladimon said, but got no response from the cell’s inhabitant. “Why must all you prisoners be so quiet and hard to work with? I’ll be back later but I have to go for now.” He pulled his head out of the room and closed the door before hearing something smash against it. Letting out a sigh, he walked across the hallway and stuck the side of his head against the door.

“Impmon, get up! What’s wrong?” Gladimon could hear the girl’s voice through the door. He only heard a few short sentences from that voice before, but he could still recognize it as the Digidestined of Darkness. “Impmon!” A sharp slapping sound came from the room, startling Gladimon and making him draw his head back before putting it back on the door.

“What was that for?” Gladimon had only heard the Digimon of Darkness talk as a Champion, but he guessed the voice was Impmon’s.

“You weren’t responding to anything. You were just punching the wall and then fell over and started crying. What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing,” Impmon’s voice cracked. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Holding it in won’t help anyone,” a new voice said. It was a boy’s voice, the Digidestined of Light most likely, him and Impmon are the only guys in the group.

“I said I don’t want to talk about it!” Impmon snapped at the others.

“Impmon,” another new voice added very softly. The only one left to own the voice was the Digimon of Light, Tapirmon. “We’re just trying to help you.”

“I know. I’m sorry. It’s just that I feel kind of useless.”

“Why would you feel useless?” The Digidestined of Darkness was talking again.

“Because I couldn’t help fight in the match today. I was too slow to dodge any attacks and I got beat both time. Only Tapirmon actually did anything against them and I almost got killed twice.”

“Wh-what do you mean only I did something? Your Blaze Blast beat Gladimon in the second round.”

“But only because of your Wild thunder. If you didn’t use it my fireball would’ve been snuffed out by his Powder Blow, and if it did get by it would’ve been too weak to do any real damage. And Darktyrannomon was absolutely beating me, the only reason I didn’t get deleted was because you caught his attack.”

“But you still helped out.”

“I got out two attacks in the first round and they were both stopped, real helpful.” The sarcasm in the Digimon of Darkness’s voice was very obvious. “And then I became a punching bag, just so freaking useful.”

“Impmon, don’t be so down on yourself, you did fine.”

“No I didn’t, Jamie!” He paused for a few seconds, Gladimon guessed that Jamie-must be the Digidestined of Darkness’s name-must have reacted badly at his outburst and he stopped after realizing his mistake. When he spoke up again his voice was full of regret. “I-I’m sorry. You are all right, I shouldn’t be so depressed. Thanks.”

“Don’t be, it wasn’t your fault. The only thing you did was show you could handle fights, you shouldn’t feel bad about that.”

“Interesting.” Gladimon pulled his head off the door and walked off. “They were able to snap him out from self-loathing so fast. They will be dangerous enemies to the New Order if they use that friendliness to make allies.”

“Not if I can help it.” Garurumon growled lowly to himself as he stepped around the closest corner behind the warrior. “I have a plan, elite guard, and was wondering if you would like to join in. My plan is guaranteed to kill the chosen and get us very large promotions, so what do you say?”

“No, my loyalties lay with the head jailer, who is currently Phantomon, and they will never return to you even if doing so let me become one of the Advocates.”

“Strong words, especially since you just turned down one of the highest ranks you could ever get. I will let you think this over, but let me tell you,” Garurumon moved so that his long body surrounded Gladimon and stuck his snout close to the vaccine’s face, “Phantomon will be a short leader and his run will end tomorrow. You can stand against me and be victorious or against me and fall, your choice.” Gladimon spat in the wolf’s face and walked off, passing right under the assistant head jailer.

“I want you to do a little experiment, Envy. You are aware of the composition of the Power Helixes, correct?”

“Yes, Lord. Our studies showed that they were pure energy from the core of a God-level Digimon, and had taken an elemental charge from the God they were made from. Why, what do you want me to do?”

“I want you to create some Power Helixes.” Lord Pride stopped so that Envy could respond, but continued when she remained silent. “I want you to experiment on data samples from yourself, Sir Greed, and some of the other Helixes we have. Hopefully you can make some Helixes with new elemental charges.”

“I’ll get right on it Lord. May I ask, what is all this for?”

“Fighting fire with fire, of course,” he replied simply, ending the conversation.

()()()

“Garurumon, where are you?” Phantomon called for his assistant. The ghost, along with Darktyrannomon and Gladimon, was in the bleachers surrounding the arena. The prisoners would normally be shepherded in by the guards at this point before the battle started, but Head Jailor Phantomon decided to have it be a closed match. “I despise that wolf.”

“You’re still yelling,” Darktyrannomon said, his right arm hanging limply and swinging slightly as he turned his head and looked around.

“So? It’s not like my hate of him is a secret. I haven’t seen him since he tried to figure out our plans. Did either of you see him?”

“He tried to get me to betray you,” Gladimon replied nonchalantly. “But I turned him down. When I left him he was angrily fuming in the halls, but that was last night.”

“I don’t like this; he could be anywhere doing anything. But time is of the essence, and we need to get this started. Are both sides ready?”

“I believe so. Shall we start?”

“Yes,” Phantomon replied. He floated upwards and raised his voice to ensure everyone could hear him. “And now it is time for the third and final battle between the Chosen Ones and the prison’s forces. Winning means that the chosen get to leave, but losing means deletion. Can they win? Who knows, but we’re about to find out! Come on out, Chosen!” The gate at one of the ends of the arena opened up and the Chosen Digimon and Humans walked out into the arena. “And against them is two of the prison’s elite guard Bakemon!” The gate at the other end opened up, letting out two of the ghost-like guards.

“Fox Fire!” The blue fire shot from the area the Bakemon had just emerged from, engulfing the two and making them explode in data. Garurumon gingerly walked out of the room as his attack faded and stood in the arena. “I will be your last opponent, Assistant Head Jailer Garurumon, of course. Now get ready, I’ll give you five seconds.”

“Garurumon, what are you doing!” Phantomon angrily questioned his assistant.

“I figured out your plan, of course. You wanted the Chosen to go free the whole time, which is why you were going to set them up against normal guards. Instead, I’m going to be their final challenge. One second left. Times up Chosen, time to battle, of course!”

“Wait.” Grant reached for his Digivice.

“Ice Cannon!” Blue energy gathered in Garurumon’s muzzle and he shot the blast at Grant.

The imp grew into a scarecrow with a green tunic on. A crow-doll sat on his straw shoulder and a red scarf wrapped around his neck. He also wore a wide brimmed hat, thick gloves for hands, and a bow and full quiver of arrows. “William’s Arrow!” He knocked an arrow and pulled it back before releasing it at the energy blast. The blast engulfed the projectile before disappearing, leaving the now ice-encased arrow to fall to the ground and explode into data.

“Fun, some big game. Wolf Cry!” Garurumon laughed before releasing a growl that took form as a blue spreading blast.

“Striped Blaster.” The multi-colored blast struck the center of the blast, the blast collapsing in on its self as it was hit.

“Garurumon, stop this nonsense” Phantomon yelled at his assistant.

“Come down here and make me,” Garurumon yelled back.

“Soul Chopper!” Phantomon summoned his scythe and charged at the wolf, only to bounce off a yellow wall that flashed into visibility right before he made it into the arena. “What is this?” He angrily demanded as the wall disappeared again.

“Not everyone here is loyal to you, Phantomon. I have plenty of my own little helpers around here, of course, and a few of them were able to set up a special force field around the arena. Only Data types and Data type moves can pass through it, and it seems everyone here is Vaccine, Virus, or a human. Now then, chosen digimon, why haven’t you attacked me yet? I was distracted then, but you stupidly stand around, come on and attack me!”

“And go for point attacks, wide stuff works just as well as long-range moves,” Phantomon finished.

“Thank you,” Shimaunimon said back, too quietly for the three to hear her. “Mirage Dancer.”

“Fox Fire!” Garurumon turned his head and shot the blue flames at the zebra as she reappeared, knocking her off her legs. “Don’t try your tricks with me, they won’t work. I’m too smart, of course!”

“Delusion Claw!” Nohemon dashed at Garurumon and held out one of his gloves, sharp claws growing from the tips as he ran. He swiped his arm as he got close to the beast and-

“Freeze Fang.” Garurumon snapped his head around and grabbed the arm in his jaw. “You!” Ice surrounded Nohemon’s arms. “Will!” Garurumon shook his head, swinging the scarecrow around. “Not!” The ice had spread around the Digimon of Darkness’ body and limbs. “Survive!” He let go of his grasp, throwing Nohemon’s frozen body into his partner. Nohemon exploded into data on contact, and Shimaunimon went flying and slammed into the barrier before falling down and reverting to her Rookie stage. “I win.”

“Impmon!” Jamie yelled as her partner exploded into data. “Y-you killed my partner! But how, we’re the good guys, we’re supposed to win.”

“You stupid human, sometimes the bad guy wins, and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. But I guess it would be wrong to leave you without a partner, so let me just finish you off.” Garurumon stalked towards the girl.

“Delusion Claw!” The crow doll that had sat on Nohemon’s shoulder swooped down from nowhere, catching his talons along Garurumon’s eye. “Do not touch them.”

“W-wait how is the crow doll still here? And how is it moving and attacking?” Jamie asked.

“The scarecrow is a puppet he can control psychically or something,” Gladimon added as they threw their choices, both guards opting for rock. “Come on, that’s the third time in a row!”

“But it also acts as a power enhancer, without it he is far weaker,” Phantomon said before turning to the two elite guards. “I call winner.”

“Good to know our battle is so interesting,” Grant deadpanned. “Should I get you a chess set, how about some poker cards?”

“No, we’re fine, but thanks for the offer. You can continue your battle.”

“Kinda never stopped, it’s only been like forty seconds! Delusion Claw!” Nohemon swooped again as the other’s attention turned back to him.

“Fox Fire!” The blue fire misses to the right of the crow, but he pulled back his head at the same time so the diving swoop was a failure as well. “Ice Cannon!” Nohemon pulled back sharply as the blast flew through the area had had been floating in and slammed into the ground, leaving a crater. “Stop dodging so I can just kill you.”

“Wait, I got an idea!” Gladimon yelled as he lost a round of rock, paper, scissors against Phantomon. “Data moves can go through the barrier, right?”

“Retainer data, remember? Hopefully this will work. Thunder Kote!” The warrior took out one of his swords and held it up, crackling electricity filling it. “Take this.” He slashed the sword, releasing an arc of lightning at Garurumon.

He let out a yelp as the electricity hit him. “Stay out of this!” The Chosen Digimon were far weaker than him which meant that they had to get close-range attacks to hurt him, but the elite guard was closer in strength and could hurt him with the long range blast. “This is their battle, not yours.”

“I hate to admit, but he’s right,” Phantomon said with a sigh. “You need to stay out of it Gladimon. But also, end of round one; you’ve given the Chosen Digimon enough of a beating, they need the rest. Round two will start in a half hour. In the meantime, have your lackey take down the barrier.”

“Fine, but it won’t help. I will win the next round and kill them anyways. Guardromon, take down the barrier.” With a huff, Garurumon walked back into the gate he came out of, a bulky rust-colored robot coming out past him and walking to the side of the arena.

“That went badly,” Nohemon said as he landed on Jamie’s shoulder. “I barely scratched him and Tapirmon didn’t do anything either.”

“Tapirmon? Tapirmon!” Grant ran over to his downed partner and helped her up. “Sorry, I can’t believe I forgot about you.”

“It’s okay; you probably shouldn’t have been helping me when he was still attacking anyways.” The Vaccine’s quiet voice sounded tired, as if she was taking a nap after slamming into the barrier and he had waked her up.

“Firewall disengaged,” the Guardromon said as the shield around the arena shrunk into a small, yellow cube in his hand. “Sorry for any inconveniences it may have caused.” The robot marched back into the room with Garurumon in it. A low, angry growl came out of the waiting room, followed by the sound of a Fox Fire attack and a pained grunt from the Guardromon.

“Useless helpers!” the annoyed wolf shouted. “At least his data will be useful.”

“I hate that wolf,” Phantomon said with equal annoyance. The head jailor and two elite guards walked down the bleachers into the arena to confront the chosen ones.

“We share the same allegiances, yes, but we are not allies with him. We three are allies; we’ve known each other since training camp and are friends. He is condescending and thinks he’s better than everyone else.”

“Can we get to the explanation, I rather don’t feel like dying today,” Grant butted in, putting the conversation back on its original track.

“Oh yes, that. Firstly, you,” Gladimon pointed at Nohemon, “need to change to your Salamandemon form. It’s fire-based while Garurumon’s moves are ice-based, even his fox fire is icy, meaning you’ll stand a better chance. And you,” his point moved to Tapirmon, “can’t hurt him. Just try and stay away from him and distract him while your partner attacks.”

“And he is a lot stronger than you,” Darktyrannomon said, stressing the lot. “And his mythril fur makes him practically invulnerable because it reduces damage he takes and you two are so much weaker than him that after being softened your moves will do next to no damage. In fact there is pretty much nothing you can do to beat him. But there is one thing we can do to help.”

“What?”

Darktyrannomon gave a toothy grin to his partners, who then returned with motions that may have been smiles but the lack of visible faces made it hard to tell. “We have a plan. Just get ready and try and have a plan of your own.”

()()()

“Time for round two,” Phantomon announced. “All fighters get back onto the field and start fighting.”

Garurumon walked out of the room he was resting in and faced Shimaunimon and Salamandemon, who were both already ready. “Come on out!” he yelled, six Bakemon and two Guardromon coming out of the gate behind him.

“Garurumon,” Phantomon called out exasperatedly. “You chose to fight the Chosen Digimon, and did so yourself, so no helpers. Get them off the field or you lose.”

“They are not helpers, Phantomon. Just some snacks.” The eight digimon behind Garurumon went into a panic as the beast quickly turned around and attacked them, cutting down and absorbing the data of all of them. “Delicious.”

“What are you doing, you monster?” Darktyrannomon yelled.

“Well, I finally have enough energy, so this. Garurumon digivolve…” The wolf glew with energy and changed into a more humanoid form. When the light faded, he looked like his Weregarurumon form but with black where his fur was white and white where there was blue. His pants were also green instead of blue.

“Seems like the virus data from them turned me into ShadowWeregarurumon. I was looking for an advantage, but oh well. Shadow Claw!” The Chosen Digimon braced themselves as he charged them, claws bared. Suddenly, the werewolf changed course and ran up the bleachers before swinging at Phantomon.

“Soul Chopper!” The head jailor summoned his scythe and blocked the attack in the nick of time. “Quick, attack. Diabolic Star!” He swung up the ball attached to his scythe as the elite guards went on the offensive as well.

“Sword Dance!”

“Claw Attack!”

“Not so fast.” ShadowWeregarurumon grabbed the swinging ball and jerked it, pulling the scythe out of Phantomon’s hands and swinging it around. The blade stopped the warrior and the dinosaur’s massive claw. “Pathetic.”

“Return.” Phantomon held up his arm and the scythe disappeared in a black puff and reappeared in his grasp. “Dark Sentence, Vaccine!” He held the scythe up as a white light surrounded it. “Now die.”

“Full Moon Kick!” The back flipping-kick knocked away the Vaccine-filled scythe and ShadowWeregarurumon landed lightly a few steps down from his original position. “It’s sad, I was hoping for a good fight, but even all five of you can’t scratch me. Absolutely pathetic! Fox Fire!” The blue flames engulfed the guards. When they faded, three new, smaller-except in Gladimon’s case where he actually seemed to grow a few inches-laid on the steps. One was a black tyrannosaurus child, the second was a black head with small wings for ears and thick, stubby legs, and the third was clad in a kendo suit and mask that covered his face and body and left only his reptilian feet and tail uncovered. “Let’s finish this.”

“Treasure Sword!” Everyone in the arena shifted their attentions to the large centaur Digimon that suddenly charged in holding up two very large blades. Unlike traditional centaurs that were part-horse, part-man the Digimon had an oversized bull body and head with a human’s chest and arms. He pushed against the ground with his large legs and jumped onto the bleachers a short distance away from the wolf man and swung his twin swords. They both landed clearly, leaving two scratches across ShadowWeregarurumon’s chest which dripped with blood that quickly evaporated into data.

“Ugh,” the struck virus let out a groan of pain. “Who are you? And how are you so powerful?”

“I am Vajramon, the Bull’s Strength, Deva servant of Ebonwumon. And I will be your end.” The Deva’s voice was deep and powerful.

The digi’s scan reminded them of the Chosen Ones’ presence, but neither of the Ultimates looked at them.

“I don’t care if you hit me once or if you are a Deva, it will just make it more satisfying when I devour you. Fox Fire!”

“Treasure Sword.” Vajramon slashed his swords, destroying the flames and causing two more bleeding wounds to appear on ShadowWeregarurumon. “Evil cannot overcome good, you New Order pawn.”

ShadowWeregarurumon became enraged at the insult. “I!” He slashed at Vajramon with his claws, but was caught on his swords. “Am! Not! A! Pawn!” Seeing that he couldn’t get a hit in, the wolf went into a feral rage.

“Seems I’ve already beaten you,” Vajramon stated coolly. “Pity, you seemed so strong. Terra Blade.” He backhanded the jumping wolf, knocking him flat onto his back, and threw his swords down so that they stuck into the ground. Vajramon reared up his legs and slammed them down hard. Cracks appeared in the area surrounding ShadowWeregarurumon before collapsing in; creating a deep pit that went down straight to the ground.

“Thanks, Vajramon,” the small tyrannosaur said, pushing himself up with one arm.

“You are welcome Agent Darktyrannomon, it is just too bad I could not get here before his attack, it will take a while for you, Agent Phantomon, and Agent Gladimon to regain your energies.”

“You’re one of the Devas?” Grant asked as the teens and Digimon ran up the bleachers towards them.

“Yes, I am Vajramon, the Bull’s Strength, Deva servant of Ebonwumon. Are you the Chosen Ones?”

“That would be us,” Jamie replied.

“So, these three were moles?” Grant asked bluntly.

“Yes, you sure picked that up fast,” the small demon head that was Phantomon confirmed.

“Well when you’ve seen as many movies as I have, you pick up on stuff like a good guy helping you out and calling you agent. Not exactly subtle.” The last part was added with light sarcasm.

“Guardian Barrage.” Two whistling bombs shot over their heads, hitting the wall with small explosions. They looked to see a small army of Guardromon marching into the arena. “Surrender in the name of the New Order. Go peacefully or we will be forced to resort to violence. Repeat: Surrender in the name of the New Order. Go peacefully or we will be forced to resort to violence.”

“Get on everyone, I’ll get us out of here.” Vajramon crouched down, allowing the others to get on his back. Some of the Guardromon shot off Guardian Barrages that he cut down midair. “Digigate open, Sovereign’s Kingdom.” The ground under them rippled and they slowly sunk into it, Vajramon destroying some more Guardian Barrages as the attacks flew at them, before slipping all the way in.

()()()

The two Angemon sat boredly at the lone table in the small room playing a game of War. “I’m bored, why did we have to get stuck with Digigate Room duty?” One of them asked the other.

“I know, no one ever uses this thing,” the other replied. “I mean, only like a dozen of the Digimon in the whole kingdom can even use this thing and they never do unless it’s some sort of emergency.”

“We’re here.” The two Angemon stared in surprise as Vajramon rose out of the rippling center of floor, the Chosen Ones and moles clinging to his back.

“I can’t believe it, someone actually used that thing,” the second Angemon stated in disbelief.

“Dude, stand up, he’s one of the Devas,” his partner signaled, standing up and saluting. The other followed a bit awkwardly, eliciting a strange look from the Deva.

“I don’t have the time for this. Go tell the Sovereign that I’ve returned and have the Chosen Ones with me.”

“Y-yes sir!” the Angemon said, running out of the room at his command.

“Well those were some…interesting characters,” Grant commented. “Where are we going now, Vajramon?”

“I will drop these three off at the infirmary and meet up with you in twenty minutes to take you to the Sovereign. For now, return to your designated rooms, they are the same ones as before you left.” The Bull Deva bent down, allowing the Chosen Ones off his back, and trotted off to deliver the three Rookies to the infirmary.

“Vajramon, you are excused. Pajiramon asked me to tell you that she would be waiting in your chamber. Good luck, you’ll probably need to borrow some of Vikaralamon’s Boar’s Perseverance,” Ebonwumon added with a deep laugh from both heads.

“Your innuendos about my mate are absolutely hilarious,” Vajramon said flatly, walking out of the large chamber.

“He needs to get a sense of humor,” Ebonwumon said. “But back to the matter at hand, what happened to you kids?”

“We got kidnapped by the New Order and happened to be put into the prison with your moles,” Grant summed up. “That sound about right to you guys?”

“Yep, sounds good,” Jamie agreed. Their Digimon agreed as well, though Tapirmon was a bit hard to hear. “Don’t forget that we also got the rest of our Rookie Helixes and Impmon digivolved into Nohemon. We also learned that one of the high-ups in the New Order is an Omnimon named Sir Wrath and their leader is called Lord Pride, if that helps.”

“Our agents have already informed us of this,” Zhuqiaomon replied. “We are lucky you are back, we cannot let our assets wander the land. You will resume your training tomorrow.”

“No, you can have a few days rest after all you have been through,” Azulongmon cut in. “We cannot push them so far. Remember, they are living beings, not weapons.”

“Even I know that, and I’m five thousand years younger than you,” Baihumon added. Zhuqiaomon shot him a death glare that shut the white tiger up.

“I am not treating them like weapons, but they are important assets we cannot let go to waste. We are already down to three Devas and heavily damaged, we don’t have many assets we can waste,” the vermillion phoenix argued back.

“We are right here,” Grant said, raising his hand. “Can you guys not argue about us when we are in the same room as you?”

“Sorry,” Azulongmon said. “We shall drop this topic of discussion. Are you injured in any way, Chosen Ones?”

“Starving, but not hurt,” Impmon replied.

“I could use some food,” Jamie agreed.

“Me too,” Grant added.

“Well we do not have anything to ask you that our agents cannot also answer, so you are dismissed. You can return to your previous rooms for rest or whatever you may, we shall send someone up to fetch you when Dinner arrives. We are having a feast tonight, so you will probably get your fill.” The teens and their Digimon left the large chamber and left in the direction of where they had stayed close to a week previous.

“Strange to think that a week and a half or so ago we were waiting for the last week of school to end, huh?” Grant spoke up as they walked.

“I was going to intern on the set for one of my dad’s company’s movies. You?”

“Hang out with my friends, go to the mall, stuff like that. Probably visit my brother every now and then.”

“Oh, where is he?” The boy raised an eyebrow when he asked the question.

“Upstate in a small town, he moved there a few years back and I never get to see him,” she replied.

“What’s summer vacation?” Impmon asked.

“Well, in the human world kids and teens go to school. It lasts from fall to spring and during summer we get a break to do whatever we want,” Jamie replied. “Within reason, of course.”

“Must be good to have so much time to just relax. We have some holidays here, but no big breaks.” Impmon sighed in disappointment.

“Well, all breaks end eventually, so they aren’t perfect. And it is really easy to get bored,” Jamie accentuated the negative.

“And the Digital World is a pretty big place with lots of different villages, there are probably breaks for things in different places, just no big ones here,” Tapirmon offered.

“I guess your all are right, but I still wish we had breaks here. We will probably have to get actual jobs one day, and I don’t want to be working every day,” Impmon replied.

“Well you never know, your status as savior of the world could let you slide through life,” Grant suggested. “Or maybe you can join the army, or whatever you have here for it, and get some high-ranking position that’ll give you plenty of time off.”

“Oh, Chosen Ones, glad to see you.” The new speaker pulled the four out of their conversation and they looked to see who it was. It was the Clavisangemon who they had a short class with on their first, and currently only, day of training.

“Hello sir,” they replied to the angel.

“May I ask where you kids are going?” he questioned them.

“Just to our rooms,” Jamie told him.

“So you do not have anything to preoccupy yourselves with for the current time?”

“I don’t think so,” Impmon said, looking at the others. “Do we?”

“Not really. Why, sir?” Grant asked.

“Because I’d like you children to come with me so I can show you something. Follow me to the library, I think it may interest you.” He started walking towards before they agreed, but after a quick exchange of looks the Chosen followed Clavisangemon.

()()()

“Hello Envy,” Neodevimon greeted his superior, appearing over the pool she was floating in.

“You’re back, Neodevimon?” the New Demon Lord asked, worry obvious in her voice. “You just left the other day. You aren’t injured, are you?”

“No, it was just a weak rebellion,” the Virus replied nonchalantly. “I handled it without receiving a scratch. It was rather boring, I desire a good fight.”

“Sorry, can’t help you with that. If you feel like just relaxing a bit, then I can help you,” she replied with a sigh. “Life isn’t all fighting and killing.”

“Of course not, I haven’t had any fighting, just the killing.” Lady Envy let out a small laugh at the demon’s cockiness. “What is so amusing?”

“Nothing, Neodevimon, it’s hard to explain.”

“Humor vexes me, you know I cannot understand it.”

“I know, but maybe I can try to explain it to you sometime, however right now is relaxation time. Want to come in?”

“No,” he replied simply.

“Of course you don’t. Here,” Envy snapped her hand up and grabbed Neodevimon by the arm and pulled him in.

“Stop, I still do not like this,” he complained as he tumbled into the pool. “Must you do this every time? When I say I do not want to come in, it is not me asking you to pull me in.”

“Well there is no other way to get you in,” Envy countered, though it didn’t count for anything to Neodevimon.

“I do not wish even that method existed.”

“Just relax, I swear you’ll like it if you just calm down.”

“I was designed as a weapon, I cannot relax,” Neodevimon took a turn with pointless arguments.

“Yes, but you’ve been improved and upgraded past that point, you can relax now if you just try a little.”

“Try to relax? Is that not an oxymoron?”

Lady Envy let out a sigh and sunk farther into the water. “Just listen to me Neodevimon. If you don’t at least attempt to relax, I will have you confined to your room for the next month Do you want that?”

“No, Lady Envy,” he replied, grabbing to the other side of the pool and supporting himself on top of the water. “Fine, I will try to relax, but I doubt I will like it.”

Meanwhile, three shadowed figures watched them discreetly from one of the entrances. “Such a cute couple,” one of the figures said in a high-pitched whisper.

“I still think we should give them a little help,” one of the others replied in a deeper whisper.

“Only because you’d win the bet if they got together now, we’ll wait,” the first shot back quietly.

“Ooh, busted,” the third said in a giggly laugh.

Back in the pool, Lady Envy looked at the not so discreet spies from the corner of her eye, Neodevimon following her gaze and seeing them too.

“I wonder if the other New Demon Lords are aware we see them,” Neodevimon contemplated.

“They probably think they are so well hidden and quiet we can’t see them,” Envy replied. “Hey, wanna mess with them?”

“What do you mean?”

“Watch this.” Lady Envy raised her voice as when she continued talking. “So, did you hear, Sir Wrath has a big crush on Sir Sloth.”

“What!” The giggly voiced figure shouted. “Sir Wrath! But he isn’t my type. I prefer calm men with a great sense of humor. Wait, no, that’s not what I meant! I like women, I swear!” He stopped his rant and stared at the two figures in the pool. “Oh, uh hello Lady Envy. Hello Neodevimon. Just, uh, passing through. Bye!” He turned around and shot out of the area.

“Idiot,” the female shadowed figure said, facepalming before following the other.

“I swear, they made me do it,” the last said before taking off after the other two.

“That was humorous,” Neodevimon said, slightly amused.

“There, I think you’re getting the hang of humor,” Lady Envy said through laughs. “You aren’t all the way there, but you’re getting there.”

“Maybe we should continue messing with them, it could help me master humor,” the Virus suggested.

“That is a great idea. Give me a minute and we can go.”

“That can wait, I think I’m getting used to this relaxing thing.”

Envy reclined back in the water, smiling, at the demon’s statement. “Good. They will probably come back anyways, we can mess with them then.”

()()()

Back at the Land of the Sovereigns, in their library. Clavisangemon was holding a small, but thick book and the Chosen stood around him.

“Here it is, the origin of the Digital World,” the Virtue Digimon read from the book. It started with the creation of the ENIAC, the first computer you humans created. With it was born a small area of the Digital World, a perfectly round area that creates the center of the Land of the Sovereign now, called the Land of Ygdrassil in the olden days. On it presided a being known as Ygdrassil, or the World Tree, who ruled over the smaller beings that lived in the small Digital World. There were three kinds of organisms who lived there in harmony: Digignomes, beings of great power that are few and far-between but can cause miracles; the plants which provided food and resources for the other two groups who helped them grow and survive; and Digimon, creatures of data that had the ability to create attacks and evolve.

“In the beginning, there were few species of Digimon and they could only access three stages: Fresh when they were newborns, In-Training as they started to grow, and Rookie when they have achieved their potential and stayed their form until they died and were reborn. As time passed and technology use grew in the real world, the Digital World expanded with it. New areas appeared in the Digital World and the three beings spread, growing in number and adapting to their new environments. However, the growth of the Digital World also made it harder for Ygdrassil to control everything.

“The world was still peaceful at the time, but he didn’t want to take any chances, so he took the strongest of each type of organism in each area and gave them great strength and power in the area where they lived. In the recently formed Volcano range, which has since expanded and moved to form the great Tower Range to the west, were created AncientGreymon, Magmava the Fire Digignome, and the great plant Sunburst. In the expanding Net Ocean was AncientMermaimon, Mariner the Water Digignome, and the great plant Tide.”

“Original names,” Impmon muttered under his breath.

“They were drawn from data at the time, and not meant to be original, just meaningful,” Clavisangemon replied. “Now then, I am reading here, do not interrupt. Where was I? Still peaceful...each area...Tower Range...expanding Net Ocean...great plant Tide. Yes, there I was. And the great plant Tide. In the freezing Boot Glaciers of the north, there was AncientMegatheriumon, Boreas the Ice Digignome, and the great plant Cryos. In the metallic Machine Kingdom, he created AncientWisemon, Titanium the Metal Digignome, and the great plant Chrome. In the thundering Forest of Bugs, AncientBeetlemon, Zeus the Thunder Digignome, and the great plant Bolt. In the calmer Forest of Sanctuary, AncientTrojamon, Arbor the Nature Digignome, and the great plant Flora. In the expanding skies, AncientIrismon, Aero the Wind Digignome, and the great plant Pollen. For the mountains and fields with no protectors to the east, Ygdrassil formed AncientVolcamon, Terra the Earth Digignome, and the great plant Redwood.

“In the sacred Land of Angels that formed in the sky of the Digital World, he created AncientGarurumon, Lucifer the Light Digignome, and the great plant Sunflower-no comments. In the eternally shadowed Dark Zone, AncientSphinxmon, Nyx the Dark Digignome, and the great plant Nyctus. Ygdrassil found thirteen great warriors of each species and brought them together to form his enforcers, the Holy Knights. The expanding Digital World was ruled peacefully and fairly under the many leaders for many years.

“And then one day, evil struck. A beast called Apocolymon rose from the deepest regions of the Dark Zone along with an army of his followers. He quickly pushed his way through the land, reaching Ygdrassil and striking him down before the army was finished preparing to counter him. With Ygdrassil’s death, all plants lost their sentience, which greatly weakened the Digital World by eliminating a third of all beings. Apocolymon took over and spread evil throughout the land. The remaining leaders and Holy Knights gathered in a secret location that has been lost to time. There, the Digignomes used their great powers to sacrifice themselves to revive their king. Ygdrassil rose, and rose more powerful than ever with the excess power of the Digignomes. His shape changed and he became the legendary golden god dragon, Fanglongmon.

“The great lord Fanglongmon took on Apocolymon and destroyed the beast, taking back the throne and control of the Digital World. After Apocolymon’s defeat, Fanglongmon’s excess power faltered and he split into the four Sovereign. Peace returned to the land, but the evil influence of Apocolymon never actually faded and crime had entered existence. After many years, the Sovereign discovered a shaman who foretold of seven great disasters that would befall the Digital World and inscribed them upon seven tablets with magic. And that is pretty much it.”

“Wow, that’s,” Grant began to comment, pausing to think of what to say, “Interesting, to say the least. Rather insane and hard to believe, but seeing the Digital World I can believe anything.”

“So, plants were alive once?” Jamie asked.

“They are still alive. If you mean sentient, yes at one time, but not for many millennia. Not even the Sovereign remember it,” Clavisangemon replied, closing the book and putting it up. “And Digignomes are either in hiding or all gone now, leaving Digimon as the only one of the original three species still alive and sentient.”

“Are all the Digimon leaders from back then and the Royal Knights still around?” Grant asked.

“No, the Royal Knights passed on long ago and were replaced with the Deva. No one is sure about the Digimon leaders, but if they are still alive they haven’t been seen in almost as long as a sentient plant.” The angel looked out of the glass dome at the top of the library and at the darkening sky outside. “It appears to be dinner time, Chosen Ones. Come, let us go.”

()()()

The Chosen sat at a large table with hundreds of Digimon in the massive dining room, servers rushing food out for the diners. As food finished getting passed out and things settled down, a Seraphimon near the edge of the table rose to speak. His helmet was removed, revealing a man’s head with long blonde hair and a blue visor covering his eyes.

“Greeting fellows,” the angel Digimon called out, drawing most everyone’s attention to him. “I have an announcement to make. “My lovely wife-” the Ophanimon seated next to him stood up- “Ophanimon, is pregnant!” Cheers broke out across the table, even from the Chosen Ones who got caught up in the excitement. “Thank you, thank you everyone. I have been granted a month of paternity leave for this. Starting tomorrow for exactly one month I will relinquish my position as head of the Sovereign’s detective forces to my assistant chief, Alphamon.”

A black armor-clad soldier stood up across from him. “Thank you sir,” the soldier, obviously Alphamon, said with a slight bow. “I am happy to fill in for you and hope you a happy, healthy child.”

“Thank you, but you don’t have to be so stiff, Alphamon,” the father-to-be replied. “Thank you everyone, you can return to your meals now.” On his word, the sound picked back up as everyone started eating the food in front of them and returned to their own conversations.

“Digimon can get pregnant?” Grant asked Clavisangemon, who was sitting across from the chosen and looking at Seraphimon with a smile.

“What? Oh, uh, yes. I believe it isn’t very different from the way you humans work, but it is much quicker because the developing egg is very simple.”After replying, Clavisangemon turned his attention back to Seraphimon and Ophanimon. “What a wonderful couple. I just wish his mother was still alive to see this.”

“Whose mom is dead?” Grant asked, freezing while moving a piece of some meat to his mouth.

“What? Oh, Seraphimon, the dad. His mother passed away quite some time ago, she never even got to meet our daughter-in-law.”

“Our? Are you his dad, Clavisangemon?” Jamie asked.

“Yes, I am. I’m so proud, do you know the feeling?” Clavisangemon looked the Chosen over, and quickly added, “Of course not, you are still teenagers. But I’m sure you can at least pretend to know how I feel.”

“You’re lucky, Mister Clavisangemon,” Tapirmon spoke up between two bites of her salad. “You have a happy family, a good place to live, are well respected, and have so much to be proud of.”

“Thank you, Chosen One.”

“I hate to interrupt the heartwarming moment here,” Impmon said loudly. “But do you know when more food is coming out? I’m still starving.”

“Just wait, Impmon,” Jamie told the imp.

“Hey, I heard the good news, Clavisangemon,” a man said behind the angel. The man wore a blue suit and large, red cape. The little bit of skin he showed on his hands and his face was pale as a sheet, and he had his blond hair put down neatly. “Congratulations.”

“Myotismon!” Clavisangemon greeted the man happily. He got out of the chair and hugged the other man. “Good to see you, old friend. It’s been months since I’ve seen you. How have you been?”

“I’m good,” Myotismon replied, returning his friend’s embrace. “My older daughter is getting married soon and my father’s birthday is coming up. After that announcement, I’m guessing you are too.”

“Very much. I only think this could have been better if my wife was still here,” the angel said back.

“Yes, it is too terrible what happened to the others, but at least you made it here,” the virus said.

“Hello sir,” Grant greeted between pieces of meat.

“Oh, greetings, who are you?” Myotismon asked.

“These are the Chosen Ones, Old Friend,” Clavisangemon said with a small sweep of his arm. “The boy is Grant, the girl is Jamie, and their two partners, well just looking at them says what they are. Chosen Ones, this is my old friend and ally Myotismon.”

“Hello Chosen Ones.” Myotismon bowed. “As Clavisangemon said, I am Myotismon. I am the Sovereign’s ambassador to the Dark Zone, and back in the days me and Clavisangemon had some wild travels along with the rest of our team.”

“Team for what?” the boy asked.

“We used to be agents for the Sovereign, going around the world finding remote villages of Digimon, and recruiting them into the Sovereign’s forces. It was me, Clavisangemon, and some teammates of ours-Bluemeramon, Wizardmon, and Clavisangemon’s wife Angewomon. Well, that’s how we turned out anyways. When we first started we were just some young adults that had just evolved to Champion and decided to join the Sovereign’s forces and got stuck together with a Zanbamon as our mentor.”

“Those were good days, but they were also over thirty years ago,” Clavisangemon replied matter-of-factly. “And some of them were certainly less than good.”

“I know what you mean,” Myotismon replied.

“Maybe you could tell us about your adventures some time,” Jamie said to the two Digimon.

“Maybe if there is some free time after everything settles down before you have to return home to your world, we will. For now, though, I should be returning to my family. We should really get together more, Clavisangemon, it has been forever since we have done anything together.” Myotismon shook Clavisangemon’s hand and walked down the table back to his family.

“Have anyone else you want to introduce us to?” Grant joked. “Maybe some of your other friends from your old team?”

“You shouldn’t joke about thinks you don’t know.” Clavisangemon’s voice was steely and he looked straight at Grant. “There aren’t any more of my teammates left.”

“Oh, uh, I’m sorry,” the teen replied awkwardly. “I didn’t know.”

The angel let out a sigh. “It’s fine, you really didn’t, I just react a bit strongly to that subject. I think I’ll go talk to my son, I will see you Chosen Ones tomorrow.” He grabbed his half-covered plate and walked over to his son and daughter-in-law.

“Good going Grant, you scared him off,” Impmon told the boy. Jamie punched him in the arm and he let out an “Oww!”

“Stop being rude.”

()()()

“How is the progress going on making our own Power Helixes, Envy?” Lord Pride asked from his shadowed throne.

“Immensely well, better than expected by a lot,” Lady Envy replied to the New Order leader. “It was far easier than I thought and we should have both sets fully ready within two days.”

“Wonderful! I will set out with finding suitable Digimon and Partners for this task,” Lord Pride replied happily. “That will probably also be done in a couple of days and then we can start the next step in our plan to have our own Chosen Ones.”

“And what is that, sir?”

“Training them and setting them out to capture the Sovereign’s Chosen Ones, obviously. Hopefully, everything will go as expected and we will come out on top.”

()()()

In another section of the large New Order base, a recently returned Omnimon passed by another figure, immediately noticing who it was.

“There’s something I’ve been meaning to admit to you for a while, and I think now is the perfect time to tell you, with no one else around to overhear.”

“What? Envy was right!”

“Lady Envy already told you? Well, it is true.”

“You do like me, then?”

“Of course I like you, you are one of my closest friends.”

“I-I’m sorry to tell you, but I don’t roll that way, Wrath.”

“What in the name of Lord Pride are you talking about, Sloth?”

“Lady Envy let it slip that you have a bit of a crush on me.”

“What the Dark Zone are you talking about? I do not roll that way. I believe Envy misinformed you. I wanted to tell you that I am in a relationship with your sister because it has been eating at my conscience hiding it from you.”

“What! I’d rather you be in love with me. N-not that I want you to be in love with me, I just don’t want you in love with my sister.”

“Well then suck it up,” Sir Wrath said angrily, stomping away. When he came to the first turn in the hallway, he turned it and walked up to Lady Envy who was waiting there. “You were right Envy, that was hilarious. I wonder when he will remember that he doesn’t have a sister.”

“Who knows, it could take the guy a while to remember, but it’s what he gets for spying on me earlier,” Envy replied with a small laugh. “Well, I have to get back to my experiments now, see you later Sir Wrath.”

“Here, I’ll accompany you to your lab. I actually have a small request for you.” The two New Demon Lords walked away as their compatriot stewed in the hallway.

A new day, a new chapter (Although later than usual.) New enemies, new powers, and new plots abound (Well in varying degrees). Enjoy.

Helix 12: Surprise Attack

A storm raged around the large New Order base as a meeting was in order. The seven New Demon Lords- Lord Pride, Sirs Wrath, Sloth, Greed, and Gluttony, and Ladies Envy and Lust-, Neodevimon, and nine other Digimon sat around a table in a dark room. The only light came from a series of lamps that ran around the room as the storm had knocked out the power in the wing holding the conference room.

“Why can’t we have the conference in a room with power?” one of the Digimon complained. “I can’t see myself in my mirror.”

“Because this is the conference room,” Lord Pride replied. “Where else can we have a conference? And maybe it means you can actually pay attention this time, Passion. Now then, Timekeeper, can you please read the minutes from the last meeting?”

“Sure, Lord,” a deep voiced figure, which in the dim light looked like a human sticking out of a round robot, said from the opposite side of the large table. “Well, the last meeting was a quick one. We met at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon. You informed us that the Chosen Ones have entered the Digital World and that we would send a small attack force led by Neodevimon to attack the Sovereign’s Kingdom. You then requested individual meetings with everyone there, except me, after the conference. We then adjourned the conference at approximately 2’o clock.”

“Thank you, Timekeeper. My only announcement is that Head Jailor Miragegaogamon’s birthday is coming up in two weeks exactly. There will be a small party for him at the Jail Headquarters on his birthday at about eight, give or take a bit. Anyone else have any announcements to make, or will this be a short conference too?”

“I actually have two announcements,” Lady Envy spoke up. “Firstly, Sir Greed and I have finished a very important experiment.” She reached into a bag by the side of her chair and pulled out twelve objects she placed on the table. Half of them were blazing red like fire and the other half were blue like water. They were all orbs with a spiral going around them. “I present the new weapons of the New Order. Using the watery data in my Digicore and the fiery data within Greed’s Digicore, I was able to create these twelve power enhancers.”

“Well I wish you informed me of this in private,” Pride said to her. “That way I could get everyone and everything required for those to be of any use. But it is good to see them completed. What is this second announcement you have?”

“As you all know, we Demon Lords can choose Advocates to carry out missions for us.”

“Of course, that’s why we’re here,” Passion said. “And why I have to be stuck in this dark room where I can’t even see myself.”

“A shining example of an Advocate,” Sir Sloth jeered, a burst of laughter following the comment.

“Sloth, stop insulting my Advocate,” Lust angrily told the other Demon Lord. “Passion may be a bit…confident in himself, but he hasn’t disappointed me once.”

“Oh, I’m sure he hasn’t.” Sloth let out another round of laughing.

Envy cut him off with a cough and started talking again. “And I am the only Lord to not have an advocate myself. I am much too busy in my laboratory to go on any missions, so I would like to appoint my own Advocate. Neodevimon,” Sloth giggled a little at the obvious choice, “I would like you to become my Advocate.”

“Sure.” The reply was simple and emotionless, but that didn’t stop a certain other, immature Digimon in the room from coming up with ways to tease the two. “And Sloth, if you say a single word or laugh there will be a need for a new Lord.” And those taunts fled from the Demon Lords mind.

“Good, good,” Lord Pride said. “And since you are now an Advocate, it means that you get an official title. Let’s go with, hmm…”

“No offence Lord Pride, but I dislike the title Hmm.” Laughter rose from some of the others at Neodevimon’s blunder.

“What? No, I wasn’t saying your title is Hmm, I was just making thinking sounds. Let’s see, the normal naming convention for advocates is a part of or another name for the Lord they are serving, so what goes with Envy? How about Jealousy?”

“Yes,” Wrath said, standing up. “It has come to my attention that some of the Lords, and potentially some Advocates then, have been disrespecting the privacy of others.”

“Hey, I apologized, didn’t I,” Sloth argued.

“Now when did I ever mention you?” Sloth let out a nervous chuckle after the Omnimon’s words. “And no, you yelled at me for dating your non-existent sister.”

“Oh yeah, I did, didn’t I? Well, uh, sorry.”

“Good, now moving on. I believe this may cause some unrest and distrust among our group if something in is not done about it. As such, I move for a sort of bonding exercise for everyone. I also think it would be rather funny.”

“I love the idea,” Lord Pride said. “I’ll see what I can come up with. Anyone else?”

“Yes, I’d like to raise an idea,” Greed said.

“No, I will not raise your pay, but if you ask me again I will raise everyone else’s. Anyone else have an actual point to bring up?” The others looked at each other, with a bit of difficulty due to the low light, and let out a few nos. “Okay, well then, conference adjourned. Have a good day everyone, except you Envy, I need you to stay here.”

After the others shuffled out of the room, Envy placed the Helixes back into her bag and turned to Lord Pride, who had sat back down by then. “What do you need sir? Do you want the helixes?”

“No, you can keep those. I actually just wanted to tell you that I found the perfect humans and Digimon, I just need you to create some Digivices to use and that we can start the operation as soon as you do.”

“Oh, I was worried I was in trouble or something. I can probably have them done in no time, Lord.”

“Good, Envy. Also, I need you to get me an assistant for something.”

“Okay, Lord Pride, but why not just send one of your Advocates?”

“Because I need stealth for this, which they cannot pull off well.”

“Okay, I think I have the perfect assistant for you.”

“Thank you, you are dismissed Envy. And have a good day.”

“You too, Lord Pride.”

()()()

A storm had also settled over the Sovereign’s Kingdom, but it hasn’t stopped any of the commotion that fills the kingdom even at night. As Digimon were moving around the large kingdom, the Chosen Ones slept. A sneezing fit from a fire-breathing maid reduced Jamie and Impmon’s room to a charred mess, so they had to sleep in Grant and Tapirmon’s room for a night. Grant and Impmon were forced into a sleeping bag on the ground-well Impmon was forced, Grant did it out of his own free will-while the girls slept on the beds.

The door to the room creaked open slowly, until it just slammed open and two figures fell in. “Oww, what was that for? You might have woked them up, kouga,” one of the figures whispered to the other.

“Woked isn’t a word, iga,” the other whispered back. “It’s woke or waked. And it was your fault for pushing the door so hard, iga.”

“I did't push it hard, kouga,” the first one replied, dropping the whisper.

“Didn’t, with an n, iga,” the other practically yelled.

“A n, it doesn’t have a vowel, kouga!”

“But it starts a vowel sounds, iga, so it is an n even without the actual a!”

“Will you idiots shut up!” Impmon yelled angrily.

“What? Who are you?” Grant asked, half-asleep. He propped himself up on his elbows to look at the two intruders, Jamie and Impmon doing likewise and Tapirmon pushing herself up on her front feet.

“You idiot, you gave us away, iga!”

“No, you did, you idiot, kouga!” Thunder from the storm outside flashed, letting Jamie see the light switch in the room and hit it. The two figures looked similar in the light, they both were a couple feet tall and had water-drop shaped bodies with arms and legs that had netting, gloves, and shoes on. They also had spiked shoulder pads, a sword, and a mask that covered their heads from the mouth up. One of them had red gloves, shoes, and mask, while the other one had purple.

“Fine, we’ve been caught, iga,” the red one shouted. “But that just means we can kill you now.”

“Yeah, kouga,” the purple one added on.

“Assassins in the middle of the night, really?” Grant replied nonchalantly. “Fine, although this is rather cliché.” He reached into a pocket in the sleeping back and pulled out their Digivices, throwing Jamie’s to her.

“Wait, you have pockets in your sleeping bag, iga? We should get one of those when we are done here, iga.”

“I agree. That is cool, kouga. Although maybe we should get two so we don’t have to share.”

The DIGI had been given an upgrade in the few days that they’ve been back to the Sovereign’s Kingdom to give actual general information about any Digimon. Jamie, who was still tired while the others were fully awake by now, moved her digivice to scan the purple Digimon.

The two champions stood drowsily, Shimaunimon almost falling over as she stood, and faced the two mutants.

“Ha, kouga, they can’t even stand properly, they’re too tired. This will be easy, kouga,” Kougamon said with a laugh.

“Hey, don’t underestimate us,” Nohemon said angrily. “Delusion Claw!”

“What, iga?” Ninjamon asked as the scarecrow ran at him, claws coming out of its gloves. Nohemon scratched the surprised ninja, knocking him over.

“Hey, no fair, kouga! Scatter Severity!” The purple Digimon swiped its arm forward, throwing a multitude of small throwing stars at Nohemon. They stuck into the scarecrow body, letting some straw fall out, but dealt minor damage. “Hey, what gives, kouga? Why didn’t you get deleted?”

“Striped Blast.” The multicolored blast knocked him over.

“Now we’ll finish this,” Nohemon said. “William’s Arrow.” He crouched down, readying his bow with an arrow and aiming so that it could hit both ninja. “Bye-bye.” The arrow went through both of them and stuck into the wall as Kougamon and Ninjamon exploded into data. “There, now we can go back to sleep.”

“Not so fast,” Ninjamon and Igamon’s voices came from the data, which had unusually condensed into a cloud. A yellow seal with an intricate symbol appeared in the center of the cloud and it started reforming. “Now face the power of Gluttony. We can come back together into one form, even stronger than before. Now face our ultimate form, Shurimon!” The reformed Digimon looked like a human wearing white ninja garb. Its arms and legs were odd coils, like grapevines, with ninja star on the end. A large star stuck to its back. “This is the time for you to die.

“What? No! How’d you do that?” Nohemon exclaimed, even angrier than before.

“The power of Gluttony has allowed us to come together to take each other’s power, shuri,” the combined voices spoke from the body. “Double Stars.” He shot the stars he had for hands out quickly, striking Shimaunimon with one and latching onto Nohemon’s scarecrow with the other. Tugging his arm back, the ninja pulled Nohemon in close to him. “Hello. Good-bye.” He shoved his arm forward again, slinging Nohemon forward into the wall of the room.

“Hey, ugly,” Grant said.

“What, shuri?” Shurimon turned around to face the boy, who unleashed a punch right to the Ultimate’s face. Shurimon fell, his limbs springing to his body and off of it. “Why you little brat, shuri. Ninja Wind!” He used his legs to push himself up and swung his arms in front of him, letting out a swarm of razor-sharp leaves. Grant held up his arms to brace himself. Before quickly realizing he wasn’t the target of that attack; Jamie, who had fallen back asleep, was.

Pushing himself over quickly, Grant jumped in front of the attack and a glow emitted from his digivice. The leaves bounced off of him as he held the digivice up and spoke. Digivolve. Helix of Light’s Virtue. Double Overlay Digivolution.” Shimaunimon reverted to her Rookie form and then digivolved again.

She had grown into a tall, golden-haired ape. A giant bone was strapped to her back and she wore a shrunken version of the golden ring as an actual ring-something surprisingly uncommon despite the name- and had a green armband on above her right elbow.

“Looks like we have a new Digivolution,” Grant said, pocketing the digivice.

“Too bad you still can’t stand up to me, shuri. Ninja Wind.” The ninja released another wave of leaves at the newly digivolved Digimon.

“Angry Spike.” A golden aura surrounded Apemon as the attack hit. A few scratches appeared on her, but she seemed mostly unharmed. “Bone Stick.” She grabbed the bone off of her back and attacked Shurimon with it.

“Double Stars.” He flung his arms up, catching the bone with his star hands, and pushed back.

“Hey, don’t forget me, William’s Arrow.” Nohemon’s arrow struck Shurimon in the back, making him writher in pain and letting Apemon’s bone get through his guard and strike him.

“You don’t have me yet,” Shurimon spat, pushing himself up again.

“Magical Monkey Punch.” Apemon punched Shurimon in the chest with a glowing fist. “I think we do now.”

“What? Impossible, shuri!” Shurimon yelled angrily as his data broke apart. “I don’t have long left, but if I’m going down I will take you with me. “Power of Wrath, self-destruction.” Another intricate symbol, this one indigo in color, appeared within the widening gap in his chest. “When I get deleted, this symbol explodes, wiping all of you out.”

“Bone Stick.” Apemon swung her bone like a bat, knocking Shurimon into the wall. “Get out of here, everyone.”

“Okay, but hurry up and get out of here yourself,” Grant said, grabbing his and Jamie’s backpacks and then getting Jamie herself. He supported the still sleeping girl and rushed her out of the room and down one of the hallways. Apemon looked at Nohemon and shook her head, so he went off with them.

“Now then,” Apemon said to the quickly fading Shurimon. “Time to finish you.”

“You aren’t afraid of dying, shuri?” He had been reduced to his head and stars by now and was embedded in the wall. “You only have seconds before I explode and take you out along with me.”

“I wouldn’t count on-” Apemon was cut off by an explosion that collapsed the room.

A bit away in the castle, having just gotten the attention of some guards, the other three heard the explosion. “You don’t think she’s?” Jamie couldn’t finish the sentence, half from not wanting to suggest Apemon’s death and half from dosing off before she could say the last word.

“I doubt it, but she probably won’t be in good condition,” he responded.

“What the Dark Zone was that?” one of the guards, an Angemon, asked them as he and his partner ran up to them.

“Two assassin attacked us, no thanks to your tight security,” Grant told him venomously. “Then they came together, kind of like a DNA digivolution, into a stronger assassin and attacked us. And after our partners beat him, he activated some self-destruct thing and my partner stayed back to make sure he couldn’t follow us. I would ask why no one heard the fight or anything and decided to check on us, but first we need to get some medical help to her.”

“Oh, uh, okay, sorry, right on that, I’ll go get help, would you like anything, a donut maybe, or some water, water should help you relax, maybe a pillow for your friend, or a brain for your scarecrow, no offence it’s just a joke,” the other guard, also an Angemon, rattled off quickly.

“Just go get help!” Grant yelled angrily. “Seriously, do you have to fail an IQ test to get a job as a guard here or something? Just get going!”

“Yes, of course, sorry sir, I’ll get right on that,” the guard replied. Grant glared at him and he took off without another word, leaving his friend to stand awkwardly with them.

“So, uh, you were sleeping in the room for the Chosen Ones, correct?” Grant gave the guard a glare that could have killed and he winced. “Right, sorry, obvious question. I-I’ll go there and start cleaning up or whatever.” He flew off back the way they had come to the room.

“Bunch of idiots,” Grant angrily muttered.

“Wow, I don’t think I’ve seen you this angry,” Nohemon said. “Not even when we got kidnapped and imprisoned.”

“Sorry,” Grant calmed down as he replied. “I try and keep a cool face, but I’m too tired right now. Believe me, it’s for the better I put a bit of a mask on.”

“Whatever you say, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t healthy for you. You know, like all psychologically, it’s supposed to be unhealthy. ”

“Maybe not, but a lot of things in my life aren’t really the most healthy psychologically”

“Dark. I’m guessing you won’t tell me about it, will you? “

“Nope. What are taking them so long? I mean, what is taking them so long, I’m too tired right now to be speaking.” As soon as he said it, the Angemon guard that went off to get help returned, followed by two large creatures made of rock and a tall man in a white robe. They passed without word, but the man in the robe signaled for them to follow.

()()()

The large creatures, Golemon, managed to dig Tapirmon out of the rubble of the room and rush her off to the hospital along with the man in white, a Magnaangemon, while the Angemon guard led the other Chosen to a spare room for the night. The next morning, they were escorted by the same guards to the hospital to see her. Tapirmon was very beaten up, both of her tusks were chipped, she had bruises and scratches all over her body, and her holy ring was missing. Magnaangemon was standing over her, his hands glowing with a soft, white energy that he held over her.

“Good morning, Chosen Ones,” he greeted as they walked in. “Do not worry, Tapirmon is stabilized and should come out just fine. She will probably have to stay here a few days and is out cold right now, though. I have a request though.”

“What, you want us to go get something for you?” Grant asked, irritation in his voice but subtler than the night before.

“Maybe some blue digirose, a repeat of what happened with Impmon,” Jamie asked.

“No, that isn’t necessary. Actually, I need to check your mind. It will hurt a bit as it will be your first time, but I have some headache medicine you can use. Now open up your minds, Psych-check.” The angel walked over to them and put his hands on the two humans’ foreheads, a rainbow aura enveloping them for a few seconds. “And now you, young Digimon, Psych-check.” He moved a hand onto Impmon’s horsehead, which required Magnaangemon to bend over as he was much taller than the Virus, and the same aura came over them again. “There, I scanned your memories and learned what happened last night. Very useful, if I say so myself, especially since I can know pass these memories on to my superiors.”

“Here, take one of these.” Magnaangemon grabbed a blue jar out of a medicine cabinet and threw them each a pill from it. “You should only need one, at least. Since your friend is still sleeping, I suggest going to breakfast now and coming back later.” He shooed them out, against their complaining against not wanting to go right now. “I insist, it’s good for you.” He gave them one last shove out the door and slammed it shut. “Have a good breakfast.”

“I have seen enough movies to know that this isn’t good,” Grant told the others as he banged on the door. “And really, that guy is just creepy, pushing us out the door like that.” He tried pushing the door in, Jamie and Impmon helping him.

“Fine, if you want to come in so bad,” Magnaangemon called out, “I’ll let you in.” The door flung open, making them tumble into the room, and then closed behind them. “I guess you can be useful in my experiments.”

()()()

“I have some odd news, Lord Pride,” Sir Gluttony aid to his superior.

“Good odd like we just got an anonymous chocolate cake, or bad odd like our people are just dying off?” Lord Pride asked, perplexed.

“I’m not quite sure, but I believe bad. I received a letter today.”

“Well what does it say?”

“It says, ‘New Order Fools, we have captured the Chosen Ones and have moles both in your organization and the Sovereign’s Army. There is nothing you can do to stop us, but we extend this offer to join as our subordinates. Signed, The Illuminators.’”

“Well that is troubling. It seems we have a new enemy to face, and we need the Chosen for our plans. Get the armies prepped and call for an emergency meeting tomorrow, we need to deal with this. I’ll see to it that we crush those Illuminators and all of their moles.”

“Okay Lord Pride, I’ll get right on that. Do you want to keep this?” Gluttony held out the letter to Lord Pride.

“Thank you Gluttony,” Lord Pride said, grabbing the letter. “Looks like I have to hasten my plans. You may go Gluttony, actually I insist you go because what I’m about to do can be dangerous.”

“Okay Lord Pride.” Gluttony left the room as Lord Pride reread the letter a few times.

“This is no good, no good at all. I wonder who these Illuminators are and what they are planning. And who are these moles? I am utterly displeased. Open Digigate, bring me my Chosen Ones.” The air rippled and ripped open, revealing a red-and-blue portal which let out two unconscious humans. “Now let’s get you two prepared for the upcoming battle, you don’t have long.

Hey CH. I thought I'd put some input in myself, as I've noticed you only have two reviews, one of which you don't count - so here would be a second review.

You're writing a good story here, and it has a very interesting plot - like what Kamotz said, although the characters need the information mentioned, you can portray more through narration - it is very clunky and being all speech means it doesn't really flow much at all. It seems, well... clunky and awkward.

I think you need to develop characters a lot - it doesn't help in a mainly dialogue-based story that we know little about the characters, or almost anything to do with their appearance or personality, and especially their size. for example, comparing Impmon to MagnaAngemon. In many places you list a character's name, but offer no description, history or personality. Even though some readers wil know every Digimon out there and remember their looks, many will not. Even if it's just a brief once-over of a character, it'd be good to see. Especially as I myself am a Digimon fan, but when I don't recognize one, i don't like having to stop reading to go onto sites to attempt to find an actual image of what said Digimon looks like - it takes a lot of time, especially when you can't find an official site or database.

Finally, I'd like to say that you need to include lesser information and some detail. Let me go back to the fight between Neodevimon and Shimaunimon in Chapter Three. here is a small extract:

“Fool, I’m still as strong as a mega while you are a mere champion. I’ll crush you, Guilty Claw!”

“Mirage Dancer.” Shimaunimon disappeared before Neodevimon could hit her and reappeared behind him. “Wild Thunder.” A white thunderbolt shot up from her horn before arcing back down towards Neodevimon.

“Are you stupid? I can only be hit by physical attacks.” He took the thunderbolt with a laugh. “Here, I’ll give you a free move before I kill all of you.”

“Okay, Anti-Freeze.” She turned her head so that the horn was aimed at Princemamemon and shot a blast of white light at him.

What you could write instead would be:

“Fool, I’m still as strong as a mega while you are a mere champion." Neodevimon called out, an evil smile on his face. "I’ll crush you, Guilty Claw!” He rushed forward towards Shimaunimon, preparing for a powerful strike.

“Mirage Dancer!” shouted Shimaunimon, as she disappeared before Neodevimon could hit her. She reappeared behind him, and attacked with a “Wild Thunder!” A white thunderbolt shot up from her horn before arcing back down towards Neodevimon. However, the attack failed, Neodevimon absorbing it with ease.

“Are you stupid? I can only be hit by physical attacks.” He said as he took the thunderbolt. He laughed, and then stared at the group, smirking. “Here, I’ll give you a free move before I kill all of you.”

“Okay, Anti-Freeze!” She turned her head so that the horn was aimed at Princemamemon and shot a blast of white light at him, freeing him form his state of paralysis, making the fight before them a lot more even than it was only seconds before.

Through all of this, you could make an interesting story I'm enjoying even better. Keep it up, CH! Add me to a PM list of VM list or whatever you're running please

THank you for the review Krazy. I seem to have a problem with pure narration, it seems. From a first-person perspective I could do better with that, but form the third-person point I'm using I'll probably need to practice some more.

I do describe them (Not as with much the two humans, nor the New Order members, but that's because I don't want to give away their species until they actually appear in front o fthe Chosen Ones), but I guess I could do better and maybe bring it back up a few more times because I only do it when they are introduced and then leave it.

Like I told Kamotz, I'm going to try and start characterizing hte characters divergently from each other. I think they have personalities, I just need to make it stronger and a bit more differing between them.

As for the litle details, that is good and I probably should have done that. I guess I've just been trying to get things through without making it good to read.

I hope this chapter is an improvement. Read and enjoy, and possibly review.

Helix 13: Illuminating Secrets

The Magnaangemon ‘doctor’ had turned out to be a spy for some organization called The Illuminators who were trying to conquer the Digital World. He and a team of ‘nurses’ kidnapped the Chosen Ones and smuggled them out of the Sovereign’s Kingdom and far away to a large mountain range to the east. Once again they found themselves trapped in a prison, but this time they were the only prisoners. Every morning the Magnaangemon would cheerily come in and give them a plain breakfast of some gruel and say something. The first day it was ‘Only nine days, young ones,’ and this morning it was ‘Tomorrow, young ones.’ They didn’t know what would happen on the day when he would say ‘Today, young ones,’ but they used his announcements to keep track of the days. At noon he did the same thing, but saying ‘my favorite prisoners’ instead of ‘young ones’, and again when he delivered dinner with an ‘esteemed guests’. The recent announcement of ‘Tomorrow, esteemed guests’ did not bring up the Chosen Ones’ mood.

Tapirmon had woken up on their second day in the prison and healed quickly, although her holy ring remained battered. Their digivices were confiscated daily during breakfast and returned along with dinner. The Digimon had tried all of their attacks, including those of their digivolved forms, on the walls and door but didn’t even leave a dent in the black metal they were constructed of. Surprisingly, as the Chosen Ones finished the undercooked meat patties they had been given, except Tapirmon who, being a vegetarian, gave hers to Impmon, Magnaangemon entered the room again.

“Special treat,” he said warmly and cheerily, setting down four plates containing slices of chocolate cake. “Tomorrow, esteemed guests.”

“Wait,” Grant called to the angel as he was about to leave the room. “What is tomorrow?”

“I’m sure you’ve wanted to ask that for the past week,” Magnaangemon replied, stepping out of the doorway back into the room and shutting the door. “And if you asked I would have told you, we Illuminators do not like lying. Tomorrow we will bring in the new prisoners.”

“New prisoners? What new prisoners?” the boy questioned. If their captor was going to tell the truth, he was going to tell the whole truth.

“One of the so called New Demon Lords of the New Order,” the Ultimate replied. His cheery tone didn’t falter once, neither did his confident smile. It annoyed Grant greatly.

Impmon, however, choked on the cake he was eating with his hands at the announcement. “You,” he stopped to cough up the cake stuck in his throat, “captured one of them? How?”

“Well, we have not captured them yet, but the capture is set to take place soon. A squadron of Illuminator soldiers is set to attack and capture one of the New Demon Lords along with any of their people nearby. They should arrive here promptly before breakfast time and will be delivered to this cell to take up residence with you four.” The Chosen Ones had wondered why the room was so much larger than it needed to be for them, and now he had answered that question. “And now, good night, esteemed guests.” One of Impmon’sBada Boom fireballs hit the door as Magnaangemon left.

Not seeing anything wrong with Impmon after eating his slice of cake, the other three silently divulged in their slices, all of which were very delicious. After the meal, no one had the desire to talk so they went to sleep and waited for the new arrivals.

()()()

Sir Sloth strolled through the city and took in the sites. Except for its inhabitants, the city looked like any normal one you would see in the human world, tall skyscrapers covered in lights sat against the dark night sky while small buildings sat cramped between them. Normally he was very hyperactive and jovial, but this was one of the times Sir Sloth lived up to his title, just meandering through the city slowly with no purpose. At least he was until a new Digimon sprung up, seemingly out of nowhere. He heard the high-pitched laughter of Laze, his Advocate, before he saw her, staring in the window of a jewelry store. Three insect Digimon stuck to the window and looked in. Sloth stopped walking and stared at the Digimon that made up his make-shift family.

Laze was a Ranamon, a blue humanoid Digimon that resembled a young woman. She usually wore a rather…revealing, he thinks is the best way of describing it, swimsuit, but in the cold night she had on a large trench coat. On the top of her head sat a weird blue hat thingy with fins on the side and curled back on the top. Sloth still wondered what the point of the weird headwear was, but she seemed to like it. Unlike the other Demon Lords who chose an Advocate of someone within New Order they had worked with or thought showed exceptional strength, he just randomly met her one day. Sloth liked to pull pranks on random people sometimes, never anything serious though, and he met Laze while she was pulling some pranks of her own. They bonded over their pranks and became friends quickly, so he offered her the advocacy.

The bugs came a bit later on. Sloth, Laze, and some of the New Order troops were sent to a village within the Forest of Bugs, a large forest that takes up millions of acres and has frequent thunderstorms. A pack of dinosaur like Monochromon had torn through the village and destroyed it, along with most of the insects living there. Their mission was to find survivors and bring them back. Laze had found the trio of bugs as eggs in a toppled shack and badgered Sloth into letting her keep and raise them. As soon as he opened his mouth and said ‘No’ she started making all kinds of offers if he let her keep them, like pulling double duty and not pulling any of her pranks on him. Sloth’s full answer was going to be ‘No reason not to as long as you think you can handle them,’ but he accepted all of her offers and let her keep them. As it would turn out, three babyDigimon were too much for her to handle alone so he had to help out and act as a father to them.

The insects were the first to notice Sloth as he silently walked up to them and they let out little cries of ‘Daddy’s here!’ The sounds of their calls put a smile on his face, well widened the one that was already there. Laze looked at him and smiled herself. “Hey, Sloth. What are you doing out here?” she asked.

“I just felt like wondering around the city and seeing the sights. Why are you and the little ones out here?” Sloth glanced over and tried to figure out what Laze was staring at in the jewelry shop window. They weren’t actually a couple or anything, but Sloth still liked to get her nice things every now and then.

“The same really, we just felt like looking around. I thought you had a meeting with the other New Demon Lords.” Sloth spotted what might have been what Laze was looking at earlier while she was talking. A necklace made of blue digichrome with a large red jewel on it.

“No, only Wrath, Greed, and Sloth had to attend. Guess I got a lucky break.” Sloth tried locating a price for the necklace. Two-hundred thousand bits. Expensive, but on his salary it was fine. He’d have to make sure to remember the name of this place.

“Yes, you had the luck to be our target,” a new voice said, drawing their attention.

“Target?” Sir Sloth asked incredulously. “Do you know who you are talking to? I am Sir Sloth, one of the New Demon Lords of the New Order. Show yourself.”

“Okay,” the voice’s owner replied, stepping out of a nearby alley. He was a heavily armored angel, a Seraphimon as Sloth remembered. “I am an Illuminator. Demon, you may come quietly or you may resist and force us to incapacitate you. Same with your demoness and demonspawn.”

Demon, demoness, demonspawn?Him and his family may have all been viruses, but Sloth boiled at the words. In all of one sentence, this angel has enraged Sloth. While he may have been a jokester most of the time, Sloth was aggressive when angered and had already mentally handed out a death sentence to the Illuminator. “Or I can just kill you for being disrespectful,” he snarled.

“So you chose to go the hard route,” the Seraphimon replied calmly. “Fine, but I did warn you. Seal of Patience.” He held up his hand and an aquamarine seal appeared in front of him. A complicated pattern formed in it.

“I don’t care what you can do. Trump Sword.” A word appeared in Sloth’s hand and he rushed Seraphimon jumping before he hit the Seal of Patience and throwing the sword at the angel, three more appearing right behind it.

“Rising Halo.”Seraphimon’s fist glew with a holy aura and he shot upwards, fist raised. The swords bounced off of him as they struck him.

“No, you shouldn’t be able to handle my power,” Sir Sloth angrily yelled. “Laze, get the kids and get out of here, now!”

“I’m afraid I cannot allow that, demon. Stop them.” At the angel’s command, two men wearing armor that resembled wolves jumped out of the shadows that hid their presence. The wolfmen, Lobomon, each wielded a laser sword and they attacked Laze and the small insects, incapacitating them.

“Don’t touch them! Trump Sword!”Sloth snapped around in the air and swung his arms at the wolfmen, his swords telekinetically following the path to them.

“I cannot allow that either. Excalibur.” A green energy sword appeared in Seraphimon’s hand and he jumped in front of the swords, easily deflecting them before they could reach their designated targets. “I hope you will come to see our ways and redeem yourself. Seal of Patience.” A smaller version of the seal appeared on the palm of the angel’s hand not wielding Excalibur and ho flew towards the New Demon Lord.

“Clown Trick!” Sloth threw a white handkerchief at the flying angel, the projectile growing to Seraphimon’s size. Excalibur ripped the handkerchief in half and Seraphimon flew right through it, hitting Sloth with the seal before diving back to the ground. “What did you just do to me?”

“The Seal of Patience. Your body will tighten up and you will become unable to do anything, quickly losing consciousness. Transport them to the carrier.” More Lobomon came out of the shadows, grabbing Sloth and taking him along with the Laze and the insects back into the shadows, disappearing as if they were never there. Sloth struggled against them until the Seal kicked in fully, paralyzing him.

()()()

“Good morning, young ones,” Magnaangemon greeted, slamming open the door to ensure everyone woke up. “Your new roommates are here, they are even early. Say hello.” A half dozen Lobomon, Magnaangemon’s personal guards that he always had nearby, came into the room holding five other Digimon. Grant pulled out his Digivice and got the DIGI ready so that they could get some information on the newcomers.

The first was a tall man wearing a fancy red shirt with a large tail, green pants, and large yellow boots. He had on a half-black and half-white mask covering his face, long flaming-red hair sticking straight up from the back of his head. A white frill surrounded his neck and two long blue ribbons came out of the shoulders of his shirt.

“Scanning. Scan complete, data retrieval. Retrieval complete…
Name: Piedmon
Type: Demon Man
Attribute: Virus
Level: Mega
Other: A powerful demon that has strong psychic powers with which he controls his four trump swords. If you encounter one, all you can do is pray. Strong energy reading detected.” Strange, he didn’t seem to have any weapons on him at all, let alone four swords. They must have been taken away by the guards.

Then next was a woman with blue skin and a dark blue swimsuit on that left little to the imagination. Fins stuck out of her hips and a weird blue headwear thing on her head. Three red orbs sat in her headpiece and two more in thick gloves she wore, her eyes matching them in color.

“Scanning. Scan complete, data retrieval. Retrieval complete…
Name: Ranamon
Type: Fairy
Attribute: Virus
Level: Champion
Other: A fairy with control over water. She is said to be born from the power of the water goddess Ancientmermaimon.”

Next were three insects that all looked similar. Two looked like twins, in fact, other than their color. They both resembled large, maybe a foot and a half long, larva with sharp purple claws on the front halves of their bodies and flatter feet on the back halves, beaks, wispy antennae, a long tail stinger, and lightning bolt patterns on each of their body segments and on their faces covering where their eyes should be. One was green with a purple beak and stinger, the other was yellow with a blue beak and black stinger. He scanned the yellow one first.

“Scanning. Scan complete, data retrieval. Retrieval complete…
Name: Dokunemon
Type: Larva
Attribute: Data
Level: Virus
Other: A larval insect Digimon that is researched to discover the mysteries of insect Digimon. He has a deadly poison within his body. Nothing special about detected specimen.”

The last one looked different, but he was still a larval Digimon. He was probably half a foot shorter than the other two, but thicker and wider. Purple spikes ran down his sides to work as legs and he had two pincers on his tail. His mouth was a sideways beak and he had large blue eyes. Like the other two he had wispy antennae, but unlike theirs which ran back from their foreheads his sat on the top of his head and went to the side.

“Scanning. Scan complete, data retrieval. Retrieval complete…
Name: Wormmon
Type: Larva
Attribute: Virus
Level: Rookie
Other: A weak insect of an ancient species. It is rumored to become one of the strongest species of Insectoid Digimon upon digivolution. Nothing special about detected specimen.” All of the Digimon were out cold as the guards put them down.

“Treat them well. Later, young ones.” Magnaangemon and his guard retreated out the door and closed it. The Chosen Ones surveyed the new prisoners.

“So one of these is a New Demon Lord, like that Wrath guy back from the other prison?” Impmon asked to make sure his understanding of the events was right.

“Yep,” Grant replied. “It must be the Piedmon, he’s the strongest and the highest leveled. But that raises the question, what is with the others?”

“They must have been New Order lackeys that were with him when they captured him,” Jamie guessed.

“What, where am I?” the Piedmon asked, rubbing his head as he regained consciousness. He looked up and froze as he saw the Chosen Ones. “You, you must be the Chosen Ones. What are you doing here? What am I doing here? Oh Goddramon, are they here?” He snapped his head over to look for the other Digimon brought in with him. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw them. “Okay, they’re safe.”

“Who are you?” Grant asked. He hoped that the Demon Lord would reply without attacking them. His hope came true when the Digimon just stood up and replied.

“I am Sir Sloth of the New Order. I’ve heard about you children from Wrath and some of our subordinates. So you’ve been captured by these Illuminators too? What do you know about them?”

“Just that they all seem to be Vaccines and addicted to something they call ‘The Future of Light.’” The first fact had become obvious rather quickly as the only Digimon they encountered from the Illuminators were Magnaangemon, Lobomon, and Angemon. The second was brought up by Magnaangemon a few times, but he never explained what it was. “So I’m guessing this means we’re going to pull an enemy mine situation and team up until we can get out of here?”

“If it is required to protect my family,” Sir Sloth replied. “But I’m not sure how we could, one of their leaders took me down easily and your powers combined do not come close to rivaling me.”

“Your family?” Jamie questioned, scanning the four Digimon on the ground. “Odd family, no offense.”

“None taken.” Sloth picked up the still sleeping Laze to one of the beds, Impmon raising some objection a Sloth had chosen his bed but stopped after a glare from the taller virus. He then scooped up the three larvae and laid them with her. “It is a long story, but I feel like we’ll be here a while so I’ll tell you later. For now, I have a request.”

“You’re requesting something from us?” Impmon asked, shocked. “You’re our enemy, your people have tried to kill us like eight or nine times! Why should we do anything for you?”

“Impmon, don’t be rude,” Jamie chastised him. “Although he does have a point, though he should have phrased it better.”

“I understand, but I can tell you exactly why you should help me. I am powerful, I can help you back and we can all get out of here.” Sir Sloth sat down on the bed, careful not t o wake the others.

“Whatever it is, we’ll accept,” Grant agreed. “We really don’t have much choice in the end. I’ve seen enough movies and read enough books to know that we’ll need each other.”

“But this is real life, not a story,” Impmon argued. “He could betray us as soon as we get out of here.”

“You have my word.” Impmon was obviously not impressed at the Demon Lord’s vow, crossing his arms and glaring at him. “Or you can not take the risk and stay here with these Illuminators.”

“I think we should trust him,” Tapirmon spoke up.

“I agree,” Jamie said. “We don’t really have any choices other than trust him or stay with the Illuminators, and I’d rather get out of here.”

“Fine,” Impmon agreed begrudgingly. “But I’ll have my eye on all of you.”

“Daddy?” one of the insects said, waking up. Sloth looked to see who it was. All three had woken up, but he recognized the voice as Wormmon. “Where are we? And who are they?”

“We are,” Slot stopped to think of something that wouldn’t alarm the young Digimon. “We are just on a little vacation here. Unfortunately, there’s been an accident so we can’t leave the room, but they will bring us food.”

“Who beat us up last night?” Kunemon asked.

“No one beat us up, and if they tried I could just beat them up,” Sloth cheerily lied. “It must have been a bad dream. You know, they say triplets can share dreams, so that is probably why you all shared it.” The Chosen Ones, minus Impmon who was angry about joining forces with New Order members, noticed that the insects hadn’t mentioned sharing the ‘dream’, but the young ones didn’t pay attention to their father’s mistake. “These are our roommates, they were short on rooms so they stuck us in with them. I don’t know your names, so can you introduce yourselves?”

The Chosen Ones played along and introduced themselves, except Impmon who Jamie had to introduce. “Nice to meet you,” Jamie added.

“Breakfast time,” Magnaangemon called, opening the door. A horde of Lobomon ran in and surrounded the bed Sloth sat on. “Enjoy it, your judgment will start tomorrow.” He set down a tray with a few bowls of a dark grey mush and left, the Lobomon following.

“What did he mean judgment?” Wormmon asked.

“It’s just a fun little activity,” Sloth lied through his teeth. “They won’t give out the details though, so we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow to see it. Now eat your whatever-this-is.” He passed out the bowls on the tray. It tasted terrible, which Sloth had to excuse as just some curious chef trying to mix together random things to the triplets.

()()()

Both the Sovereign’s Kingdom and the New Order base were in chaos. Even after ten days of the Chosen Ones missing, the Sovereign hadn’t a clue as to their location and none of their agents could find any track. The New Order’s search for the Illuminators had gone cold days before, but after the kidnap of Sir Sloth and his advocate things turned desperate, but nothing at all had turned up except a new letter saying that the offer of joining the Illuminators had been revoked. Both groups had called meetings of their top officials.

The Sovereign’s Chamber hung dark with tension at the meeting. The Sovereign, their remaining Deva-Vikaralamon the boar, Vajramon the bull, and Pajiramon the sheep-, Chief Alphamon, the dragon warrior Gaiomon, Clavisangemon, the Seven Demon Lords-the massive Leviamon and Belphemon being represented by glowing orbs that allowed them to communicate-and many others were gathered.

“Sorry I’m late,” Seraphimon said, walking into the chamber. “I did not get the memo about the emergency meeting.”

“Seraphimon, what are you doing here?” Alphamon questioned his superior. “You still have another week of leave. Shouldn’t you be with your wife and son?”

“I wish I could, Alphamon, but I am needed here. I cannot stand by while the Chosen are gone. What have I missed so far?”

“Nothing sir, the meeting is just about to start.” Alphamon led Seraphimon to two empty seats at the large table in the Sovereign’s room and the two got seated.

“Quiet down everyone,” Azulongmon boomed, floating above the others. “The meeting is about to start and we don’t need sidebar conversations.” The talking among the gathered Digimon stopped and Ebonwumon took over the conversation.

“Hello everyone. As you all know the Chosen were kidnapped ten days ago. We do not know who carried out the kidnapping, unless some new information was discovered without us being informed, and this emergency meeting is to decide out next plan of action.”

“Sir,” Alphamon yelled, which was needed to get his voice all through the large chamber. “We actually do have some new information.”

“Really? Then tell us,” Ebonwumon said.

“We discovered this letter in the medical wing, attached to the bottom of a gurney.” Alphamon pulled out the letter and cleared his throat. “It says ‘We have captured your pawns. We will not allow you to use them for your demonic plans to control our world. We have agents within your kingdom and know every move you will make. Surrender to our will now and we will not attack. The Illuminators.’” Angry shouting broke out across the gathered Digimon as he read the letter.

“What are The Illuminators?” Baihumon yelled angrily.

“We do not know, sir. We cannot find anything on them. No one has ever heard of them, and despite their claims of having people in the kingdom, our psych-checks have turned up nothing.” Alphamon sat back down when he finished.

“There must be something we can do!” Gaiomon shouted. “How can we search the whole Digital World and not have found them yet?”

“Indeed, how is that, Chief Alphamon?” Baihumon questioned.

“Well we cannot check much of the Digital World, like out far into the Net Ocean or Dark Zone, or deep into the eastern mountains,” Alphamon replied, trying to keep his calm. “I mean, we can, and we have agents out there searching, but they are long missions that we had to start on short notice and require special agents. If they are in those locations, I’m afraid it will take weeks to locate them and get information back.”

“We can’t accept weeks,” Gaiomon argued back. “Just let me take my men and go scout out these locations. I bet we can get them back here before the end of the week.”

“Oh get over yourself General Gaiomon,” Seraphimon retorted. “You cannot do better than agents trained for these rough locations. They are trying their best as is and the kingdom is in chaos. We can’t send our best soldiers off on a wild goose chase when we can be attacked at any moment, we are still not fully recovered from the last attack.” More fighting broke out, reducing the conference into brawls, some remaining verbal while others became physical. The Sovereign tried to regain control over the disaster.

The New Order meeting was doing better, but only because there were far less Digimon. The six remaining New Demon Lords and eight remaining advocates, along with Time Keeper, were gathered in the now lighted conference room.

“We just need to break into their base and kill them all,” a Shadowweregarurumon suggested.

“No, that won’t work, Rage, we don’t even know where they are,” Wrath chastised his advocate.

“And they could take on Sloth, I doubt you can do much damage,” Lady Lust pointed out.

“I can do plenty, I almost killed the Chosen and those traitors,” Rage brought up.

“You were bested by one of the Deva, and this enemy is greater than the Deva,” Lord Pride said. “And as your lord pointed out, we do not know where they are so we cannot attack them.”

“Then what is the point of this meeting if there is nothing we can do? Are we choosing the next Lord of Sloth?” Lord Pride shot a death glare at Rage, who let out a yelp like a puppy and shut up.

“No, it is not,” Pride replied. “Hopefully that will not be required. As you know, all of our members have the Seal of Lust on themselves which allows us to locate them and for them to find their way back here. So, Lust, can you locate Sloth and his advocate.”

“I am sorry Lord Pride,” Lust said apologetically, “but I cannot find either of them. It seems like they’ve just disappeared. Even if they were killed, I could find their data, but it seems like they just stopped existing.”

“Well then I guess we’ll have to kick up our search. I’m assigning all of you a region to cover. If you find anything, report to the others and we will arrive on your spot along with reinforcements as quickly as we can. Does everyone understand?” Rage argued that he could do it by himself and Passion was too busy fixing his hair to care, but the others replied positively to Lord Pride’s plan.

“Okay. Get some troops and head out immediately when we finish here. Now to assign the search locations.”

Sorry abotu not posting last week, I lost my thumb drive with all my writing on it on saturday and didn't find it until late Tuesday. I have conflicted feelings about this chapter, I'm not sure if I can improve it but I don't really like it as is. Well, read and hopefully enjoy.

Helix 14: Judgment Day

“Welcome to the first step of your salvation!” Magnaangemon announced to the inmates. That morning they had been moved by Magnaangemon and his Lobomon guards to a large copper-plated blimp. They were currently in a cell in the center of the blimp being faced down Magnaangemon, a dozen Lobomon, and a Seraphimon who called himself Patience that Sir Sloth seemed to have a grudge against.

“I will lead the first step of your salvations. Except for you two,” Patience stated, putting his hands on the top of Grant’s and Tapirmon’s heads. “I sense no darkness in your hearts. You will come with me.”

“No, we’re not leaving our friends,” Grant replied to the angel.

“Loyalty, I like that. But I cannot allow you to stay around these tainted souls and have their darkness spread to you. Lobomon, grab them.” The Lobomon entered the cell and grabbed the two partners. “Bring them with me. We will settle you two down and then I shall return to administer the first step of salvation to the tainted souls.”

“Good luck,” Sloth muttered.

“We’ll need it more, at least they don’t have to get salvation, which doesn’t sound fun,” Impmon said.

“Stop talking you heathens,” Magnaangemon said, slamming the cell door shut and locking it as Patience led the Lobomon away with the two Chosen. “The light has been extracted to allow it’s blooming, and now all that is left is evil and darkness. You are lucky as the Seven Lords of Heaven have chosen to do your salvation themselves instead of sending agents to do so, most tainted souls do not get to see their glory.”

“You mean the glory to kidnap little kids and teenagers?” Sloth poisonously spat. “Or that attack someone when they are just spending some time with their family? I’d rather die.”

“That can be arranged if you truly prefer that option,” Magnaangemon replied, dead serious. “Or if you speak ill of the Lords of Heaven again. You know not of their glory and power, demon. They are more than you have ever seen or experienced and are more than any of you can hope to achieve.”

“Sir Magnaangemon,” an Angemon said from the entrance of the room. “Members of the New Order have come on board. What should we do?”

“Invite them down here. The more we can give salvation to, the better.” After the Angemon left, Magnaangemon turned his attention back to the captives. “It appears we have company, but do not worry, they won’t get treated by the Lords of Heaven.”

“I’m scared,” Dokunemon said.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” Laze calmed him, picking up the insect.

“Poor children, being tainted so young. Their salvation will be much easier, Lobomon grab them, I can take care of them by myself.” The vaccines entered the cell and tried to grab the baby insects.

“Don’t touch him, Clown Trick!” Sloth threw a handkerchief at the Lobomon, but it faded away after going only a couple of feet from him. “What was that? I said, Clown Trick!” The attack faded after mere feet again.

“The blimp does not allow injury to us, so your attacks are ineffective. And do not attempt to attack them physically, barriers will simply appear in your way.” Magnaangemon told him.

“Well maybe he can’t do anything, but you can’t get my babies from me.” Laze picked up the other two baby Digimon. One of the Lobomon grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it. Laze let out a yelp of pain and dropped the children who the other Lobomon picked up. Despite being warned against it, Sir Sloth jumped at the guards, hitting an invisible barrier before he could reach them.

“Do not worry young ones, I will help you.” Magnaangemon grabbed the larva from his guards.

“Let go, let go!” Wormmon yelled, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.

“Electro Thread!” His two brothers both let out threads of silk onto Magnaangemon’s face.

“Precocious little things. Blimp put them to sleep.” Something in the room made a clicking sound and everyone in the room other than Magnaangemon and the Lobomon fell asleep instantly. “And now raise the wall.” Another clicking sound and a stream of data covered the bars of the cell, solidifying into a copper wall. “Take these children to a new room, and be gentle.” He handed the rookies back to the Lobomon guard and the guard ran off to find a suitable room.

“Sir, here are the New Order soldiers,” the Angemon from before said, returning. A Myotismon and a light-purple skinned woman followed him in, the sounds of other footsteps indicating guards and more New Order soldiers standing out in the halls. The woman wore a scant purple top with large white sleeves and shoulder guards, a white skirt with a large tail, and a strange headpiece that looked like a lotus flower surrounded by golden leaves.

“We are not soldiers,” the woman replied. “I am Lady Lust, one of the New Demon Lords. Please remember to use my full title, Magnaangemon.”

“And I am her advocate, Passion,” the Myotismon said. “It would do you well to remember, as one day we will be your rulers.”

“Of course, Lady Lust and Sir Passion,” Magnaangemon replied respectfully. He bowed deeply and stood back straight up. “May I ask why you are gracing us with your presence today?”

“I like him,” Lust said to Passion, who nodded.

“He is quite the gentleman and a shameless kiss up. But there is something off about him,” the vampire said back.

“I agree, but doesn’t everyone have something off about them?” Magnaangemon cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to his question instead of him. “Oh, yes, sorry. We were just checking all aerial Digimon and air-travelling Digimon to see if they had any helpful information.”

“Information about what?” Magnaangemon knew quite well what they were talking about, but made sure not to give the slightest intimation of knowledge. He even threw in a raised eyebrow to help the illusion.

“The Illuminators, a group of Digimon who seem to be trying to take over the world. They kidnapped two of our members and their adopted children, and we have been trying to locate them.” Lust watched the angel’s body carefully, his movements I mean. She noticed that he twitched a bit while she was talking, not much but enough for her to notice. There was definitely something off with him, something major.

“I have never heard of them. Are you sure they kidnapped your Demon Lord and their family? Maybe someone else did, or they could have just left your New Order.” Lust noticed him twitching again and listened closely. She thought she caught him in his own words.

“How did you know it was a Demon Lord, we only said our members?” Another twitch. Lust smiled a little, the leaves on her head plant standing up some.

“Well if he was important enough to warrant a search for information, I just thought he had to be really high up. I believe that assuming he was one of your highest ranked members would be rather reasonable.” Magnaangemon realized that he messed up and quickly formulated a plan.

“I never said it was a guy either. And if you try and pull that same thing you just pulled but saying a guy, I will kill you were you stand. Know what are you hiding?” She demanded. Magnaangemon didn’t twitch that time. That was odd, normally when someone was found out they got even more nervous and twitchy.

“Blimp, drop the wall.” The copper wall behind him exploded into data that was drawn into the blimp’s walls. Lust and Passion both took a step back in shock when they saw the cell and its prisoners.

“You? I figured you were an Illuminator from your reactions, but not that you had them. How did you capture Sloth and Laze?” Lust spoke quickly and with a mixture of anger and fear. The anger was replaced by more fear when she saw the Chosen Ones. “And the Chosen Ones? Where are the others? Sloth’s children aren’t here, and neither are the Chosen Ones of Light.”

“Do not worry, they had little darkness in their hearts. They are safe and sound in their own rooms while the tainted souls here await salvation. Luckily for you, you may join in on their salvation. Since you are so important, the Seven Lords of Heaven might take care of you themselves.” He casually grabbed the end of the whip and tugged it, pulling the confused Passion to him and delivering a nasty gut punch. Passion coughed up some blood which instantly turned to data and was absorbed by the blimp before falling over.

“Passion!” Anger filled Lust’s eyes, and even though they were covered by her headpiece Magnaangemon could sense it. He didn’t change in the slightest, showing no fear. “You monster. Serpent Ruin!” A tall staff appeared in her arm with a caduceus, the twisting snakes, one black one white, was on the top. The snakes’ eyes gleamed and they curled up the staff to sit on the top, intertwined. Still not even a flinch from the angel, building the Demon Lord’s rage. “Die.” The two snakes jumped at him, turning into a black and white blast.

“Did you miss what happened to your fellow tainted soul’s attack? The blimp’s security system stops your attack before it can hit us. I can even have it make your attacks backfire or totally disable your attacks. I am not scared of you, demoness.” The attack faded as it reached Magnaangemon. The staff disappeared from Lust’s hands and she fell to her knees. “In here, I control everything. Guards, open the cell.” Lust tried to yell something at him but no sound came out of her mouth. “I told you, I control everything, even whether you can speak or not. Now grab your friend and take him into the cell.”

Tears came out of Lust’s eyes as she was forced to carry Passion, a bit awkwardly due to him being larger than her, into the cell. Magnaangemon allowed her to cry, and even forced it while she tried to hold back the tears. “Good. Guards close the cell. Blimp, wake the prisoners up.” A click and the prisoner’s instantly awoke, even Passion who let out a pained groan.

“What the Dark Zone just happened?” Sir Sloth yelled. “Why did I just fall asleep?”

“Because I wanted you to fall asleep. The blimp follows my every whim and I can control it and everything in it. Now meet your new cellmates.” With a sweep of his arm, Magnaangemon led attention to Lust and Passion.

“Lust, Passion, what are you doing here?” Laze asked, too shocked by everything that happened so quickly to do much more.

“We were rescuing you,” Lust replied. She set Passion down gently before continuing. “Everyone was sent out to look for you two this morning, me and Passion getting to patrol the skies. We came across a random blimp and decided to investigate. Amazingly enough, we discovered you, and even the Chosen Ones, but we also ran into the crazed angel over there.”

“I am not crazed,” Magnaangemon argued. “And just for that, some punishment.” Passion let out a loud scream and put his hands over his stomach.

“No, make it stop!” He howled in pain. “Please, just make it stop.”

“Passion! Stop it, he didn’t do it,” Lust yelled at the angel.

“I do not have to listen to you, and you do not order me around. In fact, I believe more punishment is in order.” Magnaangemon grinned and Passion went into another round of screaming. Everyone was shocked, even the Lobomon. The others in the cell yelled at him and even tried futile attacks, but he blocked all sounds but two: the Myotismon’s pained screaming and his partner’s begging for him to stop the torture.

“Humility, stop it.” Magnaangemon frowned at the order and turned around to see that Patience had returned. The Seraphimon walked up to him and did a quick psych-check on the other angel. With his concentration broken, Magnaangemon’s torture of Passion stopped and the virus fell comatose. When the psych-check finished, Humility pulled back and muttered something under his breath.

“Sorry I took so long,” Patience said to the prisoners. “The pure ones were giving me a bit of difficulty. It seems your dark influences have given them a desire to stay with you, so they will need some salvation, but not as much as you will.”

“What about our soldiers that we had with us?” Lady Lust asked, remembering the troops they had with them. They left them in the corridor when she and Passion came in to talk with Magnaangemon, and the revelation that he could control everything onboard the blimp did not help.

“I had them dealt with,” Humility replied nonchalantly. He waited a few seconds to see the shocked expressions of disgust before adding on, “They were knocked out and transported to another cell. They will receive salvation and be released.”

“Humility, leave,” Patience told the Ultimate. “And all of you guards, too. I need to be alone with them for the salvation.” Humility begrudgingly left, the guards following. Once they had all left, Patience approached the cell. “I am sorry about him. Humility is rather aggressive, but luckily not all of us are that way.”

“What do you mean, you attacked me and my family!” Sloth yelled angrily.

“But I never hit you directly except to stop your movement, and my men merely incapacitated with pressure points. Humility would have had you slaughtered on the spot.”

“Who are you anyways?” Jamie asked. “I’m assuming you are one of the Seven Lords of Heaven, but that and your name is all we know.”

“So inquisitive,” the Seraphimon replied. “I am Patience, Lord over the virtue of patience. I am indeed one of the Seven Lords of Heaven, and a leader of the Illuminators. Our goal is to wipe out all darkness from the Digital World and spread peace.” Impmon and Sloth were about to argue, but he stopped them using the blimp’s power. “I will also be giving you the first part of your salvation.”

“What is this so called salvation?” Laze asked this question, but it hung in all the others’ minds.

“The removal of darkness from your heart and soul. You are exposed to the seven virtues-Patience, Kindness, Charity, Diligence, Chastity, Temperance, and Humility-to help clear it out.”

“What was that fifth one?” Impmon questioned.

“Chastity, why?” The imp’s question confused Patience.

“I’m pretty sure everyone here, except maybe the one’s named Lust and Passion, already qualify for that one, so can we skip it? In fact, can we skip all of them and just get to when you let us go free?”

“Hey!” Lust yelled at Impmon. “What kind of woman do you think I am?”

“Well,” Impmon started to reply.

“Impmon, shut up now,” Jamie warned him. He smartly listened to her.

“No, you must go through the whole salvation to be truly saved,” Patience replied to Impmon’s question. “And we cannot allow you to leave as long as you have darkness in your heart.”

“Still worth a shot,” Impmon said with a snap.

Patience let out a deep chuckle. “You remind me of myself when I was younger. I was always trying to weasel out of things I was supposed to do, and used any excuse I could. Do not worry, if you are as pure as you say then that part should pass in minutes and be easy. So, too, should this be. Blimp wafers please.” Data came up from the floor of the room and took the shape of a plate with six wafers on it. “Door open.” The door to the cell opened and he entered it, the door closing behind him. “I need each of you to get one of these wafers, someone please grab one for the Myotismon. To show the virtue of patience, you cannot eat any of these until dinner comes tonight. Hopefully won’t be too hard.”

Each of them grabbed one of the wafers, Lust grabbing two, and put them up somewhere. Patience dropped the empty plate and it shattered into data that was absorbed back into the blimp. Patience turned around and touched the door, signaling for the blimp to open it. It closed again as he exited the cell and, with a quick good-bye, the room. The prisoners sat in silence, wondering who would be the first to break the silence.

“So it looks like we’re stuck with you all,” Impmon spoke up. “And you all are stuck with us until we can get out of here. Do you think pretty boy there will make it?” Lust glared at him. He made it obvious he didn’t want to help them, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

“He isn’t in great condition, but he should make it,” she replied. “And his name is Passion, not ‘pretty boy.’ It will do you well to remember.”

“We are stuck here together,” Jamie entered into the conversation. “So maybe we should do introductions or something. Anything to pass the time, really.”

“Well everyone knows everyone else’s name except for your name,” Sloth said. Jamie thought over what he said quickly, the New Order members obviously new each other, she and Impmon heard all of their names, and Impmon was just Impmon, but she hadn’t introduced herself yet.

“You’re right,” she said out loud. “I’m Jamie, the Chosen Human of Darkness.” She introduced herself a bit awkwardly, but since she was talking to people who would normally be trying to kill her she felt it was justified.

“Nice to meet you, I guess,” Laze replied half-heartedly.

“Likewi-” Lust started to reply before freezing mid-sentence. The others froze too and their heads turned to face the door.

“Tut tut, are you heathens speaking again? Unfortunately for you, that old fool Patience isn’t here to stop me.” Humility strolled into the room, smirking evilly. “But I don’t have time to enjoy it. We have landed in the Land of Angels, our destination. Blimp, attach the safety collars.” The blimp let out data that surrounded the six’s necks, forming into black chokers. “As long as you have these on, I can control you just like on the blimp. It is a bit weaker so I have to be within a certain range of you, but I assure you all that I will always be close by. Now come on.” The door opened and the Magnaangemon used the safety collars to shepherd them out. Passion’s unconscious body walked itself along with them.

()()()

Seraphimon and Alphamon watched the recently arrived Criminal Transportation Blimp. After the meeting a couple days before before broke out into fighting, the Sovereign forced those involved to break up into groups and separate to search for the Chosen Ones. The Police Chiefs had come to the Land of Angels to look for any clues, but no one had heard of the Illuminators or at least wouldn’t admit to it. Around noon they grabbed some lunch and had decided to hang around the blimp docks and check incoming blimpers.

A copper blimp had docked and the door opened, letting down the ramp. A Seraphimon and Magnaangemon came out of the blimp, a small army of Lobomon emerging after them and the prisoners following them. A Piedmon, a Lotosmon, a Ranamon, three insects, a Myotismon, an Impmon, a Lopmon, a Terriermon, and a ViElevmon. Quite a big bust, Seraphimon wondered what had happened and approached them.

“Hello,” the Police Chief greeted the other Seraphimon. “I am the Police Chief in the Sovereign’s Kingdom. I was just wondering, what happened to get all these criminals?” He looked over the criminals, the Impmon looked a bit familiar but he had met a few Impmon before so it wasn’t surprising.

“Greeting, chief,” the other Seraphimon said, bowing respectfully. “I was just transported these criminals and told to bring them here, I was not actually informed of their crimes.”

“Okay. Can I ask you a question? Have you ever heard of The Illuminators?”

“No sir, I cannot say I have. So sorry I cannot be any help. May I suggest looking in the Dip? It’s a section of the Land of Angels that dips downwards and is the criminal underbelly of the area. You may find someone there who knows about them.”

“Thank you sir, have a good day. Come on Alphamon, let’s go locate this Dip.” Seraphimon walked over to his co-chief and the two took the sky to locate the Dip.

The Magnaangemon watched them fly off before letting out a snicker. “I told you it would work, Patience.”

“I can see Humility. Thank you, blimp, for the disguises.” Patience looked over the last three members of the line. Humility had noticed the suspicious looking Seraphimon and Alphamon duo as they were unloading the prisoners and had the blimp place data disguises over the Chosen Humans and the Chosen Digimon of Light. Patience looked over the disguises and couldn’t notice a single thing out of line, they perfectly copied the Digimon they were supposed to look like. “Now let’s get moving back to base.”

The prisoners walked along with their captors silently. They all had the same thought, even the New Order members who were aware it wasn’t a much better option for them. They had just been missed by the Sovereign’s people and have probably lost their chance to be saved.

Well no one saw this coming. I hadn't actually abandoned this, just had writer's block. Well the block cleared up and I got back to writing. Now after almost two months, time for the next chapter. Enjoy!

Helix 15: Daemon Deus

“Hello, I am Kindness.” An Ophanimon greeted the prisoners, minus Grant, Tapirmon, and the insect triplets who were in a separate room, kindly. They were in a posh decorated copper-room in the Illuminator base. According to Humility, it was made of the same data as the blimp, so they could be controlled by the Illuminator leaders just like on the blimp. He had demonstrated it the first time he had some alone time with them and tortured Passion with hand movements from across the room

No one liked Humility, not even the other Lords of Heaven it seemed, but as he explained ‘I’m more powerful than any of them. This isn’t even my real form, I just hold it so that I can move around without the area around me being warped by my power.’ They decided not to question it or argue in case he was telling the truth.

“I will administer to all of you your test of kindness.” She smiled brightly, literally. Her entire body gave off a glow, and her teeth shined. “Much like my brother’s test of your patience, this should hopefully be easy. However, I will let you all rest for now. Also, I have this.” Kindness held up her hand to show a blue digirose. “It seems that Humility seriously hurt the Myotismon, so I brought this for you to give him. We Illuminators generally dislike unneeded violence and always try to only fight to disable and knock out others without any injuries. I apologize deeply for Humility’s actions.”

“Thanks,” Lust said, taking the flower from Kindness and crushing it up in her hand. She dropped the crushed flower onto Passion and he absorbed it as data. The Myotismon coughed up a bit of blood and propped himself up on his shoulders with a groan.

“What the dark Zone happened?” he asked. The others explained to him what happened and, after giving it a few seconds to sink in, he stared at the Chosen Ones and Kindness. “So, you are our enemies? Too bad, you all look like you could make good allies.”

“We are your allies,” Impmon said. “Even if just temporarily.”

“And I’d rather you didn’t think of me as an enemy.” Kindness frowned. “I am just trying to help.”

“Help us with what?” Jamie questioned the angel.

“I’m not supposed to tell you.” Kindness put her hand on her chin like she was thinking. “But if it will help gain your trust, I will anyways. The New Rising is coming.” The others stared at her and she realized they didn’t know what that meant. “Lords Diligence and Humility, our leaders, are going to release the full powers of light on the world. It will destroy all darkness in the Digital World. You are all very powerful so we want to save you, which is why we are trying to save you from darkness.”

“What do you mean, save from darkness? Me and Impmon are the Chosen Ones of Darkness, so it can’t be all bad,” Jamie pointed out.

“Well, uh…” The Ophanimon seemed at a loss for words. “I only know what Lords Diligence and Humility say. Maybe we are wrong about all darkness.”

“You do not know what you speak of, foolish woman.” Humility appeared in the room, using his wings to float through the air. “Now go do something useful.”

“B-but I was, Lord Humility,” Kindness stumbled over her words. “I was ab-ab-about to give them the n-next part of their t-t-tests.”

“Good for you. You can do that later. I’m not sure why we even have you here; you should be raising children somewhere.”

“Y-yes sir.” Kindness seemed to be barely holding back from breaking down and crying.

“Now go.” The Magnaangemon flicked his hand and Kindness practically flew out of the room, the heavy door closing behind her. He nonchalantly turned around in mid-air to face the prisoners. “And you kneel.” They kneeled before him, struggling futilely not to. He looked over them and studied them. “You, stand up.” He pointed to Laze. Her eyes were sunken in and she didn’t resist his powers at all. She didn’t even react, as if she was broken and just a shell.

“Yes?” She asked, emotionless. It pained Sloth to see her like that, but there was nothing he could do, their kids were still separated from them and until she got them back he knew nothing could help her.

“Here.” He held out his arm and something started to form in it. Data came out of the air and formed into a small green worm-like Digimon.

“W-Wormmon?” The fairy’s eyes lighted up at the sight of the insect.

“Woops.” Humility let go of the insect and it fell to the ground, shattering into data. Laze let out a heartrending shriek and fell to her knees, crying. Sloth stared at the spot where the baby had fallen. He turned his head to the angel and jumped at him.

“Stop.” Humility boredly raised a hand, expecting Sloth to stop. The virus didn’t. He continued to fly through the air, resisting the Lord of Heaven’s power, and punched Humility. They both fell, Sloth landing on his feet and summoning one of his swords, while Humility landed on his back. “How could you resist my power?”

“Because you hurt my family. And now I will kill you.” sloth swung his sword at the downed vaccine.

“Would it help if I told you it was just a replica and your Wormmon was still safe?” Sloth paused momentarily at Humility’s words, and the Illuminator took advantage of it. He rolled to the side and sprung up, snatching the sword from Sloth’s hand. “You are lucky I won’t kill you, but attack me again and your head will roll.” He put the sword over his shoulder and angrily left the room.

As the door slammed shut, he smashed the sword to the ground, splintering it and causing it to fade into data, and sent out a psychic command to the building’s data. The prisoners inside of the room crashed to the ground, falling unconscious from hitting the floor.

“What is wrong, sir?” Kindness asked gently, approaching him.

“Quiet, woman.” Humility swung his arm, slapping her and sending her flying into the wall. “You do not talk to me unless I address you first, got it?”

“It better not. Now leave.” She rushed away from him and he smirked, pleased she feared him totally.

()()()

A strange figure wearing a cloak of shadows stood among the rubble of a destroyed village. It was a bit over six feet tall, but its cloak, which was literally made out of shadows, covered anything past height from being distinguishable. Two smaller figures wearing similar cloaks accompanied it.

“What are we doing here, Lord Pride?” One of the smaller figures asked.

“I am just mourning,” the taller figure, Lord Pride obviously, replied. “I do not like needless violence but I had to kill this entire village to awaken my full potential. I also needed to seal their bodies which would’ve trapped their digicores in. It drained a bit of my energy when they did so, but I’m glad the sovereign’s men released them.”

“May I ask sir,” the third figure asked. “Why this village?”

“I don’t know,” Pride answered back. “I was drawn here, but I have no idea why I was drawn here.

“So, why have we come back here?” The figure was confused, but calm.

“Because I wanted to do this.” The New Demon Lord reached into his cloak and pulled out a blue sunflower. “Do you know what this is?”

“So this.” Lord Pride threw the sunflower away, the flower falling to the ground between the smaller figures. “Program activate.” The ground absorbed the flower and the ruins as data. A field of flowers and grass instantly grew in the area that was previously a village. “That flower was infused with a program that would cause a field to grow here. I wanted to stop quickly since I had it on me. Come on, we should resume the search.” They left the village, joining up with two more very small figures on their ways out of the field.

()()()

Seraphimon and Alphamon flew along the large floating continent. The two had been scouting for the dip they had been told about the previous day. Finally, Alphamon had spotted it and pointed it out to Seraphimon. It was a large dip, about the size of a small town, and was the only real change in the mostly picturesque landscape. It was dark despite the fact it should have been well light by the sun.

“Rather gloomy place,” Seraphimon noted as they landed in the dip. A village of small houses and building stretched through the area, lights burning in all windows. Even with all the lights, darkness persisted in the area and sunlight seemed to be blocked out.

“Yes, very dark and empty,” Alphamon added. They surveyed the streets and saw no one walking about. “It seems that everyone is inside a building. We should find the largest gathering of Digimon and question them.”

“I think that may be it,” Seraphimon noted, pointing out a building larger than the others, about three stories so it stood out among the shorter buildings surrounding it. It was a bright orange and had a large lighted sign hanging on it. The sign read ‘DIZZY DRAMON’ and a drawing of a serpent-like creature twisted around the I.

“The Dizzy Dramon? Isn’t there one of those is the Sovereign’s Kingdom?” Alphamon asked.

“And in Magna Marina, that large city by the Net Ocean. I believe it is a chain, but I’m still a bit surprised to see one in a place like this. Come on, let’s go in.” The two detectives entered the building. Unlike the rest of the village, it was buzzing with life as dozens of Digimon sat at tables and bars talking, drinking, and eating. A dozen others moved around, waiting on the others.

“Isn’t the Dizzy Dramon back home just a small bar? This place is a full-on restaurant,” Alphamon said. His voice betrayed no emotion, but Seraphimon had worked with the holy warrior long enough to know his partner was impressed by the place. “So where should we start looking for information on the Illuminators?”

“I wouldn’t suggest bringing them up,” a deep voice said behind them, putting very heavy emphasis on he word them. The two turned around and looked at the Digimon. He resembled a dinosaur but had a humanoid build and black skin. He had a steel helmet on over his head and wore a chest plate with a plate skirt, shoulder covers, and a large shield attached to his back.

“Who are you?” Seraphimon asked. “And why shouldn’t we talk about the Illuminators?”

“I am Blackweregreymon, the mayor of this village and owner of this fine bar. As for the Illuminators, they are a touchy subject here. They took control of the village and stripped us of our sunlight. I’m sure you noticed the darkness outside.”

“They stopped the sunlight from coming into your village? How is that possible?” Seraphimon asked incredulously.

“I’m not quite sure myself, but they did,” Blackwargreymon replied to the angel. “Said they needed it to illuminate the Digital World. May I ask, why do you two even care about that bunch of scoundrels?”

“We’re here on official business from the Sovereigns,” Alphamon took over the conversation. “The Chosen Ones have been kidnapped by the Illuminators and we are investigating to find and recover them. A blimper told us to check this dip for information.”

“Well I can’t help, but if you can take them down the whole village would be mighty grateful. And while you two are here, sit and have something. You could always use a nice drink and a meal.” Blackwargreymon led the two to a table and had them sit down. “A Digimon will be with you soon. Hope you have a nice meal.”

()()()

“Rinkazan!” Two oddly shaped swords tore through an army of Golemon. The rocky creatures exploded into data as the sword’s holder leaned against a rocky wall of the mountainous valley. “This is getting fun,” Gaiomon mused to himself. The samurai wiped sweat off of his forehead. He had been exploring the mountains for days now looking for the Chosen Ones and had been attacked by wild Digimon by the dozens. “But I haven’t seen anything. I’m starting to think it’s time to head back.”

“Who you?” Gaiomon sighed and looked to the source of the voice. Surprisingly, it wasn’t another Golemon. It was a short, white humanoid creature that was made of rocks. Gaiomon couldn’t tell what it was, but he knew it was either an Icemon or a Meteormon. The two looked identical but Meteormon was stronger. Still no match for the general, but he was getting tired. A large group, Gaiomon guessed three dozen or so, of identical monsters appeared behind him.

“I am Gaiomon, a general in the Sovereign’s army. Look, I’ve been battling Golemon for two days now and I’m getting tired. What do you want?”

“You in Meteormon’s territory,” the Digimon, now known to be Meteormon and not Icemon, said. The others in the group echoed him in a disharmonious cacophony. “You leave or you fight Meteormon.”

“Rinkageki.” Gaiomon struck his swords together and they shot a large fireball out which landed halfway between the two Digimon. The fireball threw up dust, and when the dust settled there was a crater where it hit. “I was about to leave, but if you want to order me around I think I’ll stay a bit longer. Now will you fight me or let me through?”

“Thank you, Meteormon,” Gaiomon replied. He crossed his swords and they disappeared in a flash of black flames. “Good to see I can get some help out here. But why is it dangerous deeper in?”

“Mountain no like strangers. If you go in farther alone, it data will twist. Dangers come from nowhere. Stranger no make it if go alone.”

“We come too, boss?” one of the other Digimon asked.

“No, you take Icemon go back. I return when done helping stranger,” Meteormon told the Digimon. It saluted and left with the group. Meteormon turned back to Gaiomon. “Come stranger, I guide you.”

“Call me Gaiomon. Before we go any farther, can I ask you a question, Meteormon?”

“Sure, Gaiomon. What your question?”

“Have you seen strangers that call themselves the Illuminators around here? If not, there isn’t a point to keep going.”

“Illuminators? Yes, I remember. They not like Meteormon and Icemon. They make building deep in mountain.”

“Really? Where? And how did they get so deep in? Does that mean they come from around here?” Meteormon thought over the dragon man’s questions.

“In Angel Peak Cave, on tallest mountain. But they left to Angel Land. But they angels, not from mountains.”

“They left to the Land of the Angels? Well let’s go find their base anyways, there might still be some there or some may have returned. Come on Meteormon.”

“Okay, I guide you.” The rocky Digimon started trekking into the mountain range, the general following.

()()()

The doors to the base flew open as Gaiomon walked in, Meteormon following behind him. The two found the abandoned base after a couple hours of hiking. Despite being tired and hungry, Gaiomon insisted on going in immediately. And the hundred or so Lobomon guards insisted on attacking them immediately.

“Hostiles,” Gaiomon said to his companion. “Kill them all but one, and make sure to absorb there data. We’ll interrogate the last one.”

“I like plan,” Meteormon said. “Time fight. Big Bang Blow!” He jumped at some approaching Lobomon and punched them, a blast of light shooting forward and destroying the Lobomon.

“Rinkazan!” Gaiomon summoned his swords and swept them through the crowd. He took out some of the guards, but many jumped over the swords. The Lobomon struck back with their laser swords.

“Guard Rock!” A pillar of stone shot up around Meteormon to take the hits aimed at him, while Gaiomon tried blocking the hits with his swords. The large bulk of Lobomon made the task of blocking them impossible for the large Digimon.

“Meteormon, I‘m about to do something really risky. Make sure your guard rock is as strong as you can get it,” Gaiomon called to the Ultimate.

“Yes Gaiomon. Guard Rock full strength!” A thicker pillar of stone shot up around the one around Meteormon, catching some Lobomon and crushing them against the ceiling. “Good go.”

“Gaia Reactor!” Black flames surrounded Gaiomon. “Hi o taberu.” A black explosion went out from his body, filling the building. Gaiomon absorbed the data of the defeated Lobomon as the explosion faded. Nothing was left except for a cave and the stone pillar which was severely cracked and broken.

“You done?” Meteormon yelled out of the pillar.

“Yeah, I’m done.” Gaiomon fell to his knees and supported himself on his swords, having exhausted his energy with the Gaia Reactor. “But we’ve kinda lost our lead.”

“Good me. Guard Rock.” Meteormon climbed onto Gaiomon and summoned a pillar of stone to surround them. “Night.” He went to sleep on top of the dragon man.

()()()

Back in the Land of the Sovereigns, something had happened. What happened? Well…

“Sovereign, the prophecy changed!” the dark green goblin charged into the large room of the sovereign yelling.

“What?” Baihumon demanded from the smaller Digimon.

“S-sorry, sir,” the Digimon replied, bowing to the giant tiger. “I said that the prophecy has changed.”

“What is it, Shamanmon?” Azulongmon asked, more calmly than his younger brother.

“W-well, you see, the prophecies about the chosen ones have a bit off programming in them that let’s them change as the circumstances of them change,” Shamanmon replied.

“We know that,” Zhuqiaomon said to the virus, slightly annoyed. “We are far older than you and have seen all the prophecies and witnessed them changing. My brother meant what has it changed to. Now get speaking, my patience is running thin and I will have no regret melting you.”

“Sorry, Lord Zhuqiaomon. The new Prophecy says, more or less as the ancient language can be a bit confusing to translate:
The war shall soon be upon us
Five equal sides shall rise to rule
And the ten elements shall come as their weapons
In forms from other worlds and natives working together
The seals of power will be drawn upon
Until all of the world has given some
And when all has settled the ten shall clash
While the five battle until one falls
And in the end the lord kings are replaced.”

“Interesting,” Ebonwumon said. “What does it mean, though? Did your mistress, the one who reads the prophecies, tell you young one? Or just the words?”

“Oh, oh yes, yes, Mistress Oracle gave me the explanation!” Shamanmon assured the sovereign. “She said that it means that five groups of Digimon will each get the power of two of the ten elements that make the Digital World. She believes us to be one with Light and Darkness, and thinks that the Illuminators and New Order may also have two elements because they are popping up now. Going off of that, the second and third lines mean that all sides will get Chosen Humans and Chosen Digimon that will partner up and use Power Helixes of their Elements.”

“But that isn’t possible,” Ebonwumon interrupted. “When the Legendary Digimon died all of their Power Helixes were destroyed except for Ancientgarurumon’s Helixes of Light and Ancientsphinxmon’s Helixes of Darkness. The other powers don’t have helixes to draw on.”

“Mistress Oracle was confused too, she said that the other groups must find ways to build their own helixes. She said that if it was done once it may be possible to recreate. She also told me that the sixth line could indicate them drawing power from the Digital World, but she couldn’t know for certain. May I continue, Sovereign Ebonwumon?”

“Yes, continue young one,” the giant turtle replied.

“Okay. Next, it would seem that all the sides come into some kind of war using the ten sets of chosen pairs. And while they are battling, the groups controlling them will battle too. One of the sides will be beaten and then it goes really vague. But it seems in the end, that you Sovereign will be replaced.”

“Preposterous!” Baihumon roared. “We will not be replaced, the prophecy or your mistress must be mistaken. Now you have delivered your message, so leave you pathetic creature!”

“Y-yes sir,” Shamanmon saluted and ran out of the room.

“Calm yourself, brother,” Azulongmon said. “It is most likely a mistranslation or misunderstanding, so no need to overreact. A war will break out soon and we need to prepare. I am going to personally go out and try to find the Chosen Ones, they are too important for us to stay here any longer. Soul split.” The blue dragon’s twelve blue spheres split up and landed feet above the ground in groups of four. His body broke up into data and surrounded the digicores.

“Soul recognize, Mihiramon, the Tiger’s Ferocity.” The data around one of the groups solidified into a long, sleek tiger. He was yellow with purple stripes and wings sticking out of his shoulders. A red cape was tied around his neck, and he bore purple leg guards and spiked shoulder shields.

“Soul recognize, Majiramon, the Dragon’s Fantasy.” The second group solidified into a green dragon. Red fur ran down his long spine, but he had white fur on its head and tail and a white Fu Manchu moustache. Two antlers sat atop his head. He wore a traditional purple shirt around his two arms while standing on four legs.

“Soul recognize, Antylamon, the Rabbit’s Frenzy.” The last one was tall as two full-grown men. The rabbit had a vaguely rabbit like head with three horns and long, erect ears. A large collar was around his neck and connected to his tight red shirt. His arms hung to just barely above the floor, thin at the top and becoming massive on the fore part. He also wore white pants.

“You are serious about this?” Ebonwumon questioned the three Digimon.

“Yes, brother,” the three answered in unison. “In my Deva forms I can move around more easily than as a large dragon and I hope to locate some sort of lead.”

“This is insanity!” Baihumon yelled. “I’m joining in. Soul split.” The tigers golden orbs followed the same pattern as his older brother’s, floating close to the ground and splitting into three groups of four. His data rippled and Baihumon melted into a liquid metal which also split and surrounded the orbs.

“Soul recognize, Sinduramon, the Rooster’s Striving.” The metal around one of the groups pulled the group into a small purple orb. Two gold patterns popped up on the front, two more high on the sides, and larger ones on the top and low on the sphere. The head of a golden rooster with a very large, red comb rose out of the top pattern and golden tail feathers fell out of the one low on his back. Out of the two on his sides came his wings. Bird’s feet emerged from two patterns on its bottom. Sinduramon spun around and a weapon shaped like a thick rod with three prongs on each end appeared on his back.

“Soul recognize, Caturamon, the Dog’s Strong Will.” The second group formed into a blue statue of a dog. The details on it appeared, the tail becoming individual hairs, its paws and face becoming white, golden plates appearing on its shoulders, and its face developing. He had a mouth with two upper and two lower teeth sticking out, blank red eyes, golden eyebrows, and three horns. Prayer beads appeared around his neck and a purple cape seemed to fold off of his back. His skin became armor like and purple highlights appeared on it.

“Soul recognize, Makuramon, the Monkey’s Sage.” The last group took the shape of the humanoid monkey, Makuramon.

“I should object,” Ebonwumon replied with a sigh from one of its head. “But you know well Azulongmon, and you are stubborn Baihumon. I doubt I can stop you. Just go and make sure to make it back safely.”

“Yes, sir, older brother,” the six deva saluted and replied. They retreated out of the large corridor for the Sovereign.

()()()

Lobomon used their laser swords to chip away at the walls of the cave. They had been work tirelessly for many days now and had increased the size of the cave, but had yet to find what they wanted. A clang resounded through the cave and they all flocked over to the Lobomon who had hit whatever it was. He got hard to work carving up the wall and pulled out their treasure. A large brown orb of data. The silently packed it up into a container tube and left the cave, having found what they wanted.

At the same time, a group of Angemon flew across the skies. The angels were scanning the skies for something. One of them took to the lead and turned, the others following. That was when they saw it, a flying object surrounded in a spinning rainbow aura. The champions pushed their flying to maximum speed and chased the object, the head Angemon finally reaching out and grabbing it. The object stopped moving and the aura faded as he pulled it close to him. It was a very pale green in color and looked like a large ball. One of the other angels pulled out a containment tube from a bag it was holding and they placed the orb into it before flying off again.

“Delusion Claw, William’s Arrow.” The scarecrow knocked an arrow while the crow flew off its shoulder and dove at Shimaunimon.

“Mirage Dancer.” The unicorn made of motion to the left, disappearing and reappearing in that direction. The arrow passed by the area where she was, while the crow went to her left. “You will not strike me. Striped Blaster.” The blast hit Nohemon’s scarecrow, launching it limply against the wall. Nohemon landed on the scarecrow, making it stand back up.

“I really don’t want to. But I can’t let you kill me. Now then, Delusion Claw!” Claws emerged from the fingertips of his gardening gloves and he ran at the unicorn.

()()()

Tears flowed down Sloth’s mask as the Piedmon silently held off his attackers. Laze and the three insects attacked him. He psychically manipulated his swords to take Laze’s attacks while trying to get close to the triplets to grab them. He jumped for Dokunemon, but the green worm shot a poison web into his eyes. The mega ripped the web off without feeling any pain, physically at least. The emotional pain of being attacked by his family practically tore his heart in half.

“Why are you doing this?” He questioned, his voice wavering.

“Because you are evil, and we must destroy all evil,” Laze replied, staring at him with cold, grey eyes.

“No, this isn’t you. This is the Illuminators controlling you. Please, snap out of it.” He swung his sword to block one of Laze’s attacks and rolled to the side to avoid a triple tackle by the insects.

“We are not being controlled; we have just had the truth illuminated to us. Now die! Dark Vapor!” The Ranamon swung her arms forward, sending out blasts of blackened water.

Piedmon jumped out of the way. “I hate to do this. Clown Trick.” Sloth threw a magical handkerchief at his advocate. It surrounded her and shrunk. He pulled the small handkerchief up and threw it away. Underneath was a small keychain of Laze. He picked her up and attached her to his belt. “Now boys, please wake up or I’ll have to do this to you too.”

“Do what?” Sloth spun around at hearing Laze’s voice. Somehow, she was standing right behind him. He looked down at his belt. Nothing.

“Dark Vapor.” The blackened water blasts hit him from point blank, knocking the surprised mega on his back. “Time to finish this.”

()()()

“Serpent’s Ruin.”

“Bloody Stream.” The blast and whip went in tandem at the two enemies facing Lady Lust and Passion. They were an Ophanimon and Magnaangemon, seemingly separate from any that had been met before as they didn’t know the two.

“Excalibur.”

“Eden’s Javelin.” The two angels struck back just as synchronized. The Ophanimon’s javelin of light tore through Serpent’s Ruin, leaving a spreading gap in the blast and putting the two angels safe. Magnaangemon then moved in front of his partner and cut Passion’s Bloody Stream with his holy sword. The two sides didn’t know each other and didn’t trifle around wondering why they were fighting each other or talking about destroying evil. They focused intently on killing each other.

Ophanimon charged at Passion with her javelin. Lust caught the attack with her staff. Magnaangemon moved behind her swiftly and swung his sword. Passion sent out a wave of bats that knocked the sword off course to miss Lust. Then Lust took the chance and shot a Serpent’s Ruin at Magnaangemon. Ophanimon moved in between them and used her shield to stop the blast. Passion took the chance and tried to whip the angel with his Bloody Stream. Excalibur sliced through the whip of virus energy before it could reach its target. The four cycled, with one making an attack on another, the target’s partner interrupting, the attacker’s partner attacking, and the last combatant stopping that one.

If they hadn’t been fighting against each other, the Digimon would’ve been in perfect synchronization. The cycle repeated, unbroken and none of them getting hit.

()()()

The sound of falling swords echoed throughout the cavern. Gaiomon stared in horror as he fell to his knees and the Digimon in front of him planted its sword in front of him. The energy came off of Gaiomon in a torrent, being absorbed by the enemy in front of him. When it stopped leaving his body, he had shrunken from eleven feet tall to around three and a half. His new form had lost the humanoid aspects of his previous form and looked like a baby dragon. His skin was as black as it was before, and he had red striped across his hide.

“A Blackagumon X, such a rarity,” the large Digimon facing him mused. “You’d pull some good money in if I sold you as a slave. But you might regain your strength and turn against your owner. Or I might accidentally sell you to someone loyal to the Sovereign, and that would not turn out well. Not worth the risk, so I’ll go ahead and finish you.”

“No kill Gaiomon!” A grey monster that otherwise looked identical to Meteormon called. The Digimon looked beaten up and chipped, supporting himself on a rock to let him stand up.

“Oh, yes, you. Gotsumon are such a common thing on the slave market, you would never be worth it. A Meteormon is a bit rarer so I guess I could take you as my own slave, let you regain your strength and redigivolve, and then sell you. No, still not worth it. Absolute Zero.” The air turned cold and continued dropping.

The Lobomon started retreating out of the cave when the Digimon lifted its sword and slammed it down again, calling them to stop. “No one is leaving this cave until I know these two are dead.”

“But sir,” one of the Lobomon said. He sounded weak and tripped over the basic sentence. “We will all freeze to death.”

“No we won’t,” he replied. The Lobomon calmed until he started talking again. “I am immune to it. All of you will freeze to death most likely, though. It does not matter, I can create as many back-ups as I need.”

“You monster,” Blackagumon X growled.

“Off course I am. What do you think the mon is Digimon means?” The reply was simple and matter-of-fact.

“You know what I mean. Sacrificing your own men, that is plain disgusting. And a slaver, you must be trying to make yourself an utterly despicable being. I hop you rot.”

“You have some spirit and plenty of guts.” The Digimon bent over and ran his gloved hands over Blackagumon X. He picked the dragon up by his tail and looked over him. “A lot of strength in that small body of yours.”

“Baby Flame.” A black flame appeared in Blackagumon’s maw and he attempted to shoot the fireball at the being holding him. The fire fizzled out and died before it could travel the yard-length of its arms.

“I take back what I said. You have a lot of spirit and guts. I will make you my new slave. Absolute Zero, dissipate.” The air warmed back up as he stopped giving out the freezing energy. “And I think I’ll take your rocky friend there, too. Grab him, Lobomon.”

Blackagumon slipped into a strange tongue before his new master knocked him out. The Lobomon grabbed the struggling Gotsumon, knocking him out just as well. “Good. Now let’s go back. I wonder how the other Lords of Heaven will react to this news that I captured one of the Sovereign’s generals.”

They stole out of the ruined cave and back to the Land of Angels. Mere minutes later, a tiger, a dragon, and a rabbit entered the cave to search it. It looked like any other cave, some signs of struggle probably brought on by wild Digimon that lived there but nothing amazing. The three soul fragments of Azulongmon left, not thinking anything of the nondescript cave.

()()()

“Seal Attack.”

“Beak Piercing.” The two Digimon charged at each other. They clashed mid-air, sending each other flying.

“Well that wasn’t very a-seal-ling,” the first Digimon joked, pushing himself up. It was a small, furry, white creature that vaguely resembled a seal. He had multiple blue markings oh his fur, each of his front paws, the tip of his ears, on his forehead, around each eye, and on his back. Red fur ran down the back of his head and on his back. Two fangs stuck out of his smirking mouth.

“Genius!” a shadowed figure called out from nearby. It was impossible to make out any details through their cloak of shadows, not even height as the shadows could disguise that as well, but the voice was definitely masculine. “Good one Gomamon!”

“Shut up, Elijah,” another shadow-cloaked boy told the first. “This is no time for jokes, and that one was no good anyways. Now, Candlemon, destroy her.”

“Yes, boss,” the candle Digimon responded. He swiveled around on his golden candlestick and stared down the bird with his large, red eyes. “Bonfire!” The smiling fire on his wick shot off at the bird.

“Rock Fist!” A grey rock in the shape of a fist flew into the fire, snuffing it out.

“Who’s there?” Candlemon demanded as another flame appeared on his wick.

“Just the partner of birdo there, hothead.” A Gotsumon jumped out of a tree, tripping on a branch on his way down and falling flat on his face.

“Don’t call me birdo!” The Digimon that had earlier clashed into Gomamon said. She was a red-bodied hawk. Black claws stuck out of the ends of her wings which she used to push herself up. Her head was white and a belt was around her forehead, a feather sticking out of it.

“And it would be more appropriate to call me her partner,” a girl’s voice said. A woman dressed in navy blue business clothing stepped out from behind the tree. She held up a pink device. “Shea Ruff, nice to meet you. Now if you will please hand over your Water and Fire energy I will leave.”

“But if you don’t,” a man in a matching suit stepped out from the other side of the tree. He adjusted his tie and stared at the other. “If you don’t, then we will be forced to kill you.”

The flaming double helix erupted into a full blown fire pillar as the Digivolution went on. When it died down, a man in black, red, and white armor stood in it. A tri-horned mask sat on his face and his blonde hair flowed down his back. “Do you still want to fight us?”

“Yes, we do. Digivolution activate, double growth.” The man held up his brown digivice. A matching color helix appeared around Gotsumon.

Gotsumon digivolve to…Icemon!

Gotsumon had become white as snow. He tried to stare at Agunimon menacingly, but the Demon Man laughed at him.

“Icemon? But I have an elemental advantage over him.” Agunimon stated amused.

“Well does this impress you more?” Shea asked. “Digivolution activate, double fusion.” A pink double helix surrounded Hawkmon, evolving into a small twister as Hawkmon evolved.

Hawkmon digivolve to…Harpymon!

The bird-woman broke through the dying twister. She had white-feathered wings and legs with gold markings on the upper part of her wings and on the ends. A metal cap with a golden emblem of a winged diamond sat on top of her expressionless face.

“Well this is no fin,” Gomamon yelled. “I want to evolve too.”

“Well then digivolution activate, double virtue,” Elijah said, holding up his blue digivice. The double helix, obviously blue like his digivice, appeared around Gomamon.

Gomamon digivolve to…Tylomon!

He rapidly grew into a large reptile, the others moving so he could fit. His head was blue with an odd crest that stuck off to the side and back with spikes, two blades sticking out from under the crest. A large pair of fins stuck out from behind his head, a smaller pair protruding from right in front of the base of his tail. His body was a pale blue, darker blue stripes going down his back in row.

“Well looks like this will be a full out battle. Shall we start then?” Shea asked.

()()()

“Eden’s Javelin.”

“Bloody Stream.” Passion attempted to whip the javelin and push it off course, but he reacted too slowly and missed it. The javelin buried itself into Lust’s leg. The New Demon Lord fell over in pain, screaming as blood came out of the edges of the wound. “Lust! You!” Passion faced the Ophanimon and stared deep into her eyes.

“S-stay back,” she muttered fearfully. The angel retreated against the copper wall.

“Move, and I’ll take your head off,” Magnaangemon threatened, holding up his sword.

“Fine, I won’t move. I won’t need to move to kill you. Power release. Digivolve.” A black light surrounded Passion and he grew. The room had a rather tall roof, and he reached up to it. The light turned blood red and melted off of him. A large blue growth appeared on the top of his back, the exposed underbelly was red and had spines. Two creatures sat on his shoulders, looking like white pills with blue heads and three eyes. The one on his right shoulder had red eyes, and the left had blue eyes. The red mask on his face took a sharp point in front but his head looked otherwise the same. His chest was thick and had a red symbol resembling his mask and two fangs on it. His arms were built like long gauntlets and each had three fingers with two red claws sticking out.

His groin resembled a white version of his mask with a yellow eye on each side of the front and a long tail sticking out of the back. A black and white mask sat on each kneecap, matching one on the strange growth on his back. “Now face the power of Malomyotismon. Sodom, Gomorrah, prepare to feed.” The creatures on his shoulders opened their mouths. “Pandemonium Flare.” Magnaangemon stepped in front of Ophanimon as the flames built up in the creatures’ mouths.

“Heaven’s Gate!” He raised Excalibur and moved it around in a circular path. A gate appeared in the area the angel circled and opened. Sodom and Gomorrah released their flames, which were sucked into the gate. “You may be powerful, but you cannot beat us, beast.” Magnaangemon rose Excalibur again and started to take flight when flames started leaking out of the Heaven’s Gate. “No, impossible. All demonic things are sucked in and cannot escape ever. How are the flames escaping?” More flames flowed out of the gate and behind it to surround him and Ophanimon.

“Because I am simply stronger than your gate. Now fire again, Pandemonium Flare.” The two things released more flames, surrounding and destroying the gate. They moved onward and surrounded the angels. Their shrieks of pain lasted for a few minutes that Passion took great pleasure from, before they exploded into data that the giant demon absorbed. “Power seal, dedigivolve.” The blood red energy surrounded Malomyotismon again and he shrunk back down to his Myotismon form.

“How are you Lust, are you hurt badly?” He turned to his master and his eyes grew fearful. The Ophanimon’s javelin disappeared the same time the angel did, and now the wound was unblocked. The small trickle of blood had become a gushing mess coming from both the front and back of her leg. The flower on Lust’s head had lost its color and started to wither. “No, Lust!” Passion ripped off his cape and wrapped it around the wound as tight as he could. He grabbed the fairy and ran out the door to the room, smashing it open with his shoulder as he ran.

“Prisoner, what are you doing here?” Passion whipped around and saw Kindness. The Ophanimon stared at the angry virus in shock. Then her shock grew as she looked at what was in his arms. “Oh, oh my. What happened to her?”

“What do you mean, what happened to her?” Passion spat. “You minions attacked us and she got injured.”

“M-minions? B-but this is horrible. I cannot let this stand. Come with me quickly, we must take her to the infirmary before she bleeds to death. I cannot imagine she is far away from death even now.” Passion hesitated from listening, in case Kindness was going to lead them into another trap. But Kindness exercised her powers of control within the base and made him follow her to the infirmary.

()()()

Sloth was mentally breaking. His family continued to attack him, the four not seeming to slow in the slightest, and calling him evil. His swords continued blocking them off from getting any hits in, but they were becoming more sluggish. He had given up trying to catch any of them and leaned against a wall. His self-perseverance forced him to keep moving around the swords in a futile defense, but he couldn’t last much longer. Sloth’s family was far weaker than him and couldn’t kill him for a long time even with their combined efforts. He probably wouldn’t feel anything until they had been beating on him for a while. But the Piedmon didn’t mind the physical pain.

“Why?” He weakly asked. He hated the inevitable response of ‘Because you are evil and we must destroy evil’, followed by a chorus of ‘Destroy evil, destroy evil.’ “This is his fault”, Sloth thought. “All the fault of Humility. If he gets out of here, he will tear that Magnaangemon in half personally. But to get out of here, I would have to kill them. Laze, Wormmon, Kunemon, Dokunemon.” “No.” It was a whisper but it drew the attention of his attackers. Sloth rose up. “I will not let Humility win. Please, stop.”

“Sloth.” The New Demon Lord looked at Laze. Her expression softened. Tears of joy started running down Sloth’s face. The took a turn for tears of pure hatred as her expression became cold again. “You are an enemy of light. You will have to die.”

“No, Laze. Please, please, you have to recognize me. Boys, don’t you recognize me. Your daddy?” Sloth fell to his knees and held out his arms to the insects. For his troubles, he got a face full of web. In his rapidly approaching depression, Sloth didn’t even care to pull them off.

“No! Get out of my head!” Sloth looked in surprise as Laze grabbed her head and started shaking it. “Get out!” Tears build up in her eyes and her face softened before hardening back up and softening again.

“Laze, you have to kick him out. You can’t let Humility win.” Sloth rose unsteadily and placed his hands on the Ranamon’s shoulders. “You have to. If he wins, then you will be lost. You have to kick him out of your head.” He pulled her into a hug and broke down, tears cascading.

Them, her arms wrapped around him. “Thank you Sloth.” He couldn’t bear to pull out of the hug, but the response told Sloth that it had worked. Laze had broken out of Humility’s mind control.

“Mommy, daddy!” The trio of voices brought the tears out even harder.

Then, the door slammed open. “Idiot! How did you break the control?” The Magnaangemon’s voice sent Sloth on high alert. He broke the hug and pushed Laze behind him. His swords came to the ready at Humility’s throat. “Pathetic.” Humility swept the swords away from him with a thought.

“Humility, I need a word with you.” A woman’s voice spoke up from out of view.

“No now, Kindness. I am busy,” Humility shooed her.

“I said, I need a word with you.” A sense of force had entered the words, but her voice didn’t raise at all. “Apparently, you brought the prisoners to the torture rooms and forced them to fight.”

“And what if I did? There is nothing you can do about it.” Humility let out a yelp as he was sent flying into the room. Kindness stepped into the doorway.

“I may not be as strong as you, but that doesn’t mean there is nothing I can do. Now you are to stop the torture right now, Humility.”

“So you grew a backbone.” Humility stood up and faced the other Lord of Heaven. “Too bad I have to rip it out now.”

“Trump Sword!” Sloth took the chance and brought his sword up, sending them straight through the angel. They buried up to their hilts. The ultimate coughed up a bit of blood and fell forward.

“What? Oh, the prisoners. I am sorry for whatever Humility may have forced you through. Your attack will only knock him out for a short while, he is to powerful to be killed just by that. But I thank you. Please, your friends are in the infirmary. Go visit them.” Kindness picked up Humility and dragged him off.

Something ringed in the back of Sloth’s mind. A sudden desire to go see Passion and Lust, along with a knowledge of how to get to the infirmary from there. He picked up his sons and they started walking off to see them.

()()()

“Grant, Shimaunimon, stop.” Jamie dodged a kick from Shimaunimon and tried to call out. None of the other times had worked, but she couldn’t just stop.

“William’s Arrow.” Nohemon managed a clean hit on the zebra-unicorn right in her shoulder. Shimaunimon let out a pained neigh and the arrow broke into data that she absorbed.

“Mirage Dancer.” Shimaunimon pushed towards Nohemon, appearing inches away from the scarecrow. “Shima Corn Thrust.” A white glow surrounded her horn and she dug it into him. The crow puppet let out a loud caw as his scarecrow disappeared.

“Nohemon, regain some energy, I’ll take over.” Jamie jumped onto Shimaunimon, wrapping her arms around the zebra’s neck and dug her feet into its sides.

“Jamie, I can still handle this, get out of the way. Delusion Claw.” Shimaunimon reared up in pain and Nohemon swooped down, scratching her chest with his claws. The unicorn went into a wild frenzy, jumping around the room. Jamie tightened her grasp and dug her feet in even harder.

“Calm down,” Grant calmly called to his partner. Shimaunimon calmed down her jumping and regained her head.

“Get off of me,” she yelled, swinging around her body to try and throw off Jamie.

“No, I can’t let you two stay under this Illuuminator mind wash thing.” A black light started coming out of Jamie’s pocket. She reached in with one hand, and pulled out her digivice. “Well this is new.” She slipped off the horse and stumbled back some before holding up the digivice. “Total Power of Darkness! Growth and Virtue Overlay Digivolution!”

Growth and Virtue Digivolution! Total Power of Darkness! Impmon digivolve to…Wizardmon!

The crow changed back to his rookie form and a double helix of black energy surrounded him. A purple witches hat with the front half of a skull attached to it appeared on his head, blonde hair growing out under it. His skin become an ashy gray and he grew to around four and a half feet. With a wave of his hand, a staff with a sun symbol on the end appeared in front of him and he grabbed it. Wizardmon swung the staff down and it sent the dark energy dispersing out. With it gone, a purple cape covered with ancient runes on the inside appeared on him, covering his mouth. He had on thick gloves like his previous form’s scarecrow, but the new gloves had zippers down the palm for no discernable reason. He wore a yellow bodysuit with an orange vest and orange face-like markings on his knees.

“Scanning. Scan complete, data retrieval. Retrieval complete…
Name: Wizardmon
Type: Demon Man
Attribute: Data
Level: Champion
Other: A Digimon with control over magic. It is rumored that the Wizardmon species came from an alternate universe along with other species. Digicore connected to Darkness Digivice.”

“Looks like I’ve got a new skill. Electro Squall.” Wizardmon rose his staff and it started crackling with electricity.

“Mirage Dancer.” Shimaunimon disappeared again and appeared behind him. The thunder jumped off his staff and went straight towards her metal-covered horn. The Chosen Digimon of Light let out a pained sound and fell over, dedigivolving.

“Shimaunimon!” Grant called, grabbing his head in pain. When he let go his features softened up. “What happened?”

“The Illuminators led us into a trap and brainwashed you,” Jamie replied, picking up Tapirmon and handing her to the boy. “But me and Impmon unlocked a new use for the helixes and beat the brainwashing out of you.”

“Please lower your weapon. I am not here to attack you. I simply want to take you to see your friends.”

“And why should we believe you, when you just forced us to fight each other?” Jamie demanded.

“Because I am not cruel. I will not stand for this torture. I just want to take you back to your friends and then go confront Humility about this.” The three Chosen looked at the angel.

“I think we should trust her,” Grant said. “This may not be a movie, but I’ve seen enough of them to recognize both obvious traps and anti-villains who really want to help. My gut is telling me she is the second. And there is nothing else we can do.” The others acknowledged his point and they followed the woman.